EW Fall 06: Terry Yamazaki Visits South Bend Job Shop

	CUSTOMER STORY
	Terry Yamazaki Visits South Bend Job Shop

Paul Hartz, President, Mack Tool; Terry Yamazaki, Chairman, Yamazaki Mazak Corporation; Mel Hartz, Founder and Chairman, Mack Tool; Sondra Hartz, Wife, Mother and Matriarch of the Hartz family; Bill Bettis, Midwest Regional Manager, Mazak Corporation

Terry Yamazaki took some time during IMTS 2006 to visit Mack Tool in South Bend, IN

Terry was thrilled with his new Notre Dame golf shirt — a gift from Mack Tool

by Joe Romanowski
Chairman & CEO

We were excited when Terry Yamazaki, Chairman of Yamazaki Mazak Corporation, accepted a special invitation from the Hartz family to visit their South Bend plant during IMTS 2006. The Mazak octogenarian chairman has headed Yamazaki Mazak Corporation since the death of his father in 1962. Terry is known as the industry’s preeminent visionary. He has always been interested in visiting customers.

I remember in the early days of our relationship with Mazak (we started representing Mazak in 1977) Terry and his brothers, Tom and Tony, frequently visited the Chicago area. This was before the Schaumburg Midwest Technical Center and the huge current U.S. Mazak infrastructure. Terry always was interested in what kind of machine tools and technology his customers needed to compete. In those days, our customers primarily competed with the shop down the street. Today, everything is global! Even more significant, today’s successful manufacturing companies and job shops must have high technology machine tools and accessories to slash the labor content of their machined parts with ever increasing throughput. Mazak Multi-tasking machine tool development has lead the world in this technology. I believe Terry’s customer visits have had a clear cut influence on Mazak’s multi-tasking vision.

Mack Tool (www.macktool.com) is privately held by the Hartz family located in the heart of Notre Dame country, Sound Bend, IN. They specialize in medical and aerospace parts. They own four Mazak Variaxis 630s with pallet changers, three of which in a 28 pallet Palletech; three PFH-4800s in a 22 pallet Palletch, one PFH-4800; one Integrex 200 3ST with barfeed; one Integrex 200 3S with barfeed; one FH 6800 and two QTN 200s. Mack Tool measures up well as the profile of a winning job shop. They have aggressive leadership and vision, strong financial wherewithal and the courage to invest in their people and equipment to compete globally.

On behalf of Machinery Systems and Mazak, we want to thank Mack Tool for hosting Terry’s visit.

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