A Note From Mike Reader, President of China Instrument Parts
As we enter the second half of the year I am happy to report we have many good things happening here at China Instrument Parts All and all, it was a successful first half with sales surpassing those of last year, and the addition of our 4th Miyano ABX lathe
. Our customers remain optimistic and continue to ask us to take on more work from them. It is a testament to the hard work of all our staff when I hear a long-standing customer ask me “we need to resource a package of parts, how much more can you take on?”. Especially with existing customers, we have developed a trust that ensures them that we know what we are doing and that we will produce what they ask for. As the degree of difficulty in developing and manufacturing new components continues to increase, we understand that the complexity of the part will make a difference in our customers’ profitability and efficiency.
We are continually improving “embedding” ourselves with our customers’ product engineering teams, so as to add more value and be in the best position to transition from prototype to production. Our customers love this because they can understand cost and manufacturing challenges early on in a design project. We love this because we want to make the entire process seamless. Bill Wells, our Sales and Engineering Manager, devotes much of his time working with these engineers. It’s a time-consuming proposition, but an investment in both our futures.
Since the beginning of the year, we have taken on over 100 new jobs, not only from new customer-partners, but from our existing customer-partners from a variety of industries, including pneumatic and hydraulic, aerospace, industrial, automotive, medical and dental and movie and still motion product manufacturers.
This organic growth, coupled with new opportunities developed through our website and media efforts have us plenty busy. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to reinvest in capital equipment and technology to support our customer’s needs, and remain committed to ongoing improvements.
However, while we can put all the new equipment we want on the floor, it is the difficulty in finding/developing skilled machinists that will constrain our growth moving forward. This is a real problem for us, our industry and our country that requires a true Manufacturing Training Plan. We are addressing this issue on many levels. Locally, we are participating in trade school and college programs designed to instruct young and/or unemployed individuals in the crucial trade of manufacturing. On a national level, with the PMPA, we are talking to Congress and Senate leaders in order to create a mind shift with respect to training younger people in the trades, so they can fill in the open spots that retiring Baby Boomers are leaving at a rapid pace. The goal is to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.
Reach out to me with any questions, suggestions or comments you may have! My door is always open.
Mike Reader
President
