MTM was started in 1965 by Scott’s father, Wayne, who still shows up occasionally to lend his enthusiasm and wisdom.  When asked, “where do you get your courage,” Larry said Scott and Scott said his dad.  How do we define courage at MTM?  Ten plant expansions since 1980, millions of dollars of capital equipment within the last year and 220 highly engaged employees in a job shop business that has been seriously challenged by China and other off shore threats.  Both Scott and Larry acknowledge their concern for the competitive nature of their business, but they are not afraid.  Here’s what Scott said when asked about their China strategy.  (Movie link)  

When asked what their differentiation was in the marketplace, they echoed, “don’t let an opportunity pass MTM by.”  In other words, whatever their customer wants they will figure out a way to get it to them.  They also agreed their culture is fiercely tenacious.  I would add that I felt an atmosphere of intense, high energy entrepreneurial spirit everywhere I went in the plant. 

 Scott and Larry repeated over and over the high regard they have for their customers and staff.  They spend a lot of time in the hiring process to make sure their people are intelligent, creative, innovative and have high computer aptitude along with top machining skills.  Since every MTM customer part is potentially an automated job, employees must be excited to continuously improve every process.

An example of their continuous improvement, tenacious attitude is how they handled the implementation of their first Mazak Palletech system, which is now about three years old.   You can feel the power of Larry’s conviction when he told us that the Palletech system runs 24/7 and 75% of every hour of every week is in process, cutting metal.  While this number is extraordinary, he’s not satisfied.  He wants even more time in-the-cut.

Scott emphasized that their basic strategy to Chinese labor is “no labor.”  As they strive to automate, they have not had to reduce their workforce.  They have explained to their people that they expect to keep growing and will keep the people who are willing and able to grow with them.  Their people believe that automation, rather than being a threat, secures their future.  It fuels more growth because as they develop each automated cell, everyone becomes collectively smarter and even more capable with each customer opportunity.