Success Stories
Precision Machined Parts
Arizona
This company specialized in precision machining of
high quality parts of various materials to customer
specifications within the defense and aerospace
industries. Historically, it had specialized in the
commercial aerospace industry and in short run or
prototype production.
The company faced increasing foreign competition as
foreign aircraft customers specified domestic
content contingencies for orders, primarily from
production sources in several developed countries,
particularly Australia. In the two years prior to
the firm's certification as trade impacted annual
sales decreased 7% to $4.5 million and employment
decreased 12% to 73.
The company, with assistance from the University of
Southern California’s Western Trade Adjustment
Assistance Center (Western TAAC) became certified as
trade impacted by the US Dept. of Commerce, Economic
Development Administration (EDA) .
Western TAAC and the company’s management developed
a strategy to improve manufacturing efficiency and
planning, seek longer run production orders in
commercial aerospace, and diversify into
non-aerospace industries. Using its own funds, the
company acquired key production equipment and an
updated information system. They also secured
aerospace production and non-aerospace orders. Over
a 3 year period, Western TAAC and the company’s
management implement one information technology
project that added scheduling and production data
collection capabilities to its information system,
and one production engineering project that
implemented a statistical process control system
within its production operations.
Three years after program completion, the results
are remarkable. These projects along with other
strategy implementation led to outstanding growth
and stability for the firm. As a result, in the 5
1/2 years since the firm began working with the
Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms program,
sales increased 116% to $8.8 million, employment
increased 15% to 98, and productivity improved 88%
to $90,089 sales per employee.
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