Raving Fan: Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Inc. (AMT)

	Real-time: Running a Job Shop like a Business

Pictured (left to right): Bob Watry, AMT General Manager; Steve Nehls, MSI Sales Engineer; Dick Vallin, AMT President & CEO posed in front of one of their Mazak FH-4800 HMCs..

by Steve Nehls, Senior Sales Engineer, Mazak Group

Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Inc. (AMT) is a production-oriented contract shop located in Grafton, WI that runs 35 machine tools. Horizontal Machining Centers have been the primary direction of the company over the past few years. As production volumes have become more and more important to AMT, the HMC concept has really taken hold.

Standardization and Set-up Reduction

AMT’s favorite machine tool is the Mazak FH-4800. They have four of this model. Bob Watry, General Manager, says he and his staff like the control, and the speed of this machine. Also, by standardizing on one model AMT gets a lot of flexibility to move operators or jobs from machine to machine without hesitation.

Computer Integration and Real Time

Dick Vallin is AMT’s President & CEO. Dick manages the business side of the company. Actually, Dick has been a businessman for only 11 years. He’s a retired Navy Commander, who completed three tours of duty in Vietnam. But the company has come a long way over the past 11 years, despite the fact that AMT has had almost no increases in overhead personnel — with only one HR person and one QC person being added. Dick gives a lot of credit to AMT’s integrated computer system, which runs on a Vantage software platform.

The Vantage system monitors all costing, purchasing, production scheduling, production tracking, and accounting. This system has been on-line for five years. Initially, the system seemed very expensive, but according to Dick it has proved to be the best investment AMT has ever made. There are 42 computers and printers connecting into the server in AMT’s production facility. This allows AMT to gather real-time data and learn what’s going on with the business. This is a major competitive differentiation for AMT: Very few contract manufacturers or job shops keep track of data in such an organized manner. As AMT prepares for ISO 9002 certification, the Vantage system has been providing valuable information.

People Power and Productivity

Dick believes it is AMT’s people, not simply their business processes that are the company’s real strength. "People are most important. Do everything you possibly can for the people, while still making sure the viability of the business remains." AMT has a strong core team of production and support personnel. Many have been with AMT for a long time.

But AMT has kept the overall number of employees very much in check. Whereas the organization had 125 people in 1989, AMT has tripled 1989 sales levels with only 96 people today. That’s a great example of productivity improvement!

Existing customers are a great reference for future customers

If you look at AMT’s website www.amt-wi.com it’s somewhat remarkable that their customer list is posted. Most of MSI’s customers are quite protective of that kind of information. Dick explains that "all we want to do is attract more business by showing off who our current customers are." It seems like a fresh approach.

In order to increase sales, AMT’s board made a decision to increase the customer base and diversify. Previously, GE Medical Systems accounted for 80% of AMT’s work. Although the volume of business that AMT does for GE has actually increased, over 100 active customers have been added — including ten that really drive AMT’s business.

Running a contract shop like a business

AMT has all the necessary ingredients for a very successful contract shop: Smart people, good machines, process improvement, focus on a core competency (machining), and little fear about making investments.

But beyond that, AMT is run like a business, with an eye on sales, marketing & image awareness, data collection & assessment, investment justification & risk assessment, process documentation, development of strong relationships with lending institutions, and development of a broad customer base. This is what makes AMT different, and probably accounts for much of their unusual success. It’s probably also what gives those 96 employees steady, rewarding jobs.

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