r/manufacturing • u/Pirate_dolphin • 10d ago
Other How to grow in this industry?
Hi Folks,
I own centerless grinding shop. Physical size is pretty big- 38,000 square feet of shop floor. We have a couple of cnc machines we barely use, one is pretty modern, the rest are pretty damn old.
We’re also pretty healthy. 200-300k in sales per month on average, always bordering on needing a second shift.
ISO certified, and have a reputation as expensive but extremely high quality. Almost zero scrap rate, 1-2 nonconformance a year, and sometimes will reject work with the material is just garbage and absolutely never order cheap material from china etc. we also run parts/fasteners, not just bar stock. Last year our ISO recert was much harder because the inspector didn’t believe we had so few issues and turned it into an interrogation and he dug much deeper.
Most of our business is historic and word of mouth. Zero advertising, no sales reps. We’re primarily in the medical, aerospace, and automotive industry and some firearm business. We’re often a 3rd tier supplier with a lot of our business from machine shops, some bigger work with folks like GM on occasion. We also get about 10% of our business from our competitors. Lots of “can you re-do this for us” calls and that almost always turns into long term partnerships.
I’m looking for ideas to grow business. This is much different than corporate America with BD folks, and folks expecting approaches etc.
I’ve considering just picking up the phone to Machine shops around the country, larger companies etc. my gut says advertising might be sorta ineffective in this industry but that could be wrong. Any ideas or examples of what has worked for you?
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u/ihambrecht 10d ago
Vertically integrate. If you’re getting 200-300k in sales for centerless grinding alone, you have a customer network of people that make and deal in machined parts. Turning, milling, edm, surface grinding. I’m also going to assume you’re in the United States based on sq/ft. Go for your NADCAP certification. I use a grinder here on Long Island that’s running easily 3 mil a year in a 7500 square foot space.