12" balls.  Ballco was built on making balls better than anyone else.

3-4 operators running 9 CNC machining centers.

The biggest surprise of all — large balls being bored on an old turret lathe.

I saw a number of old conventional machines arranged in cells that produced world competitive balls — a solid testimonial to "lean manufacturing" (simple, less automation, slower, only running parts needed right now) and counter to traditional common sense (running fast and hard).

Every ball is individually packed.  This is the final, final inspection.

by Joe Romanowski
Chairman & CEO

I decided to visit with Ozzie Van Gelderen, President and Owner of Ballco Manufacturing in Aurora, IL www.ballcomfg.com for two reasons.  Ballco has made balls for ball valves for many years.  I was always impressed with how good they were at making these balls.  They were a niche player long before many of us knew what the word meant.  I was very interested in understanding where they now stand in that niche.  Secondly, MSI recently installed a CIMCO DNC-Max system at Ballco and I was curious why Ozzie purchased it.  In my more than fifteen year relationship with Ozzie, I have known him to justify every plant purchase by how much it would improve throughput.   I wanted to know how Ballco was using our DNC system to increase throughput.

Click here to see and hear Ozzie explain his philosophy.

Ballco is a classic example of a company that owns a niche one inch wide and a mile deep.  Ballco is the largest supplier of non-commodity balls in the United States.  They earned their place in this niche with focused, relentless hard work.  As Ozzie said, “We get together everyday to talk about how to make balls better. We implement one day, one idea at a time.  Nobody spends more time thinking about balls than us.”

Ozzie was music to my ears when he said, “Nobody can use the word throughput enough around here.  Everyone understands throughput and that’s how we pay our employees.”  Ozzie has implemented a very aggressive bonus plan that is tailored to facilitate increased throughput with continuous improvement of all processes.  As an example, the average set up in their shop is one and one-half hours from last good part to first good part.  Jobs are kitted in advance with process sheets, tools, photographs and all documentation.  As Ozzie said, “We treat our operators like customers in a restaurant.  We give them what they need when they need it.”  He called their tool crib “the library.”  All job kits start there.  Every morning the schedule for all three shifts is posted.  The operator knows what’s coming and the tool room foreman knows what he has to kit.

Throughput performance is the Ballco culture.  I saw examples everywhere… like a top secret ball polishing operation of six machines run by one person. Also, Preventive Maintenance schedules for all machines are vigorously followed.  Every machine is PM’d annually.  Ozzie insists on as little non-scheduled maintenance as possible.

When Ozzie purchased the business in 1988, it was a $2 million company and 88% of their work was sold to one company.  Right after Ozzie purchased the company, that customer told them they were going to terminate their business with them because their quality and delivery were “lousy.”  Ozzie had no choice but to get very good, very fast.  The lead time on ball valves in 1988 was 12-16 weeks.  Today, it’s 12-16 days.  In 1988, Ballco produced one-half of a 6” ball per day.  Now, they produce 30 per day.  Ozzie tracks productivity by dividing total sales dollars by number of hours worked.  In 1988, the productivity ratio was $24 per hour, today it’s $115 per hour.  That $2 million company in 1988 employed 70 people, today it’s a $15 million company with 50 employees.

Ozzie said, “We live with the fear that we will lose our business.”  Ozzie travels the world looking for companies doing something better than them and then as he put it, “We’re all over it.”

What about foreign competition?  “We partner with people from all over the world,” says Ozzie.  Ballco takes as much labor out of their Aurora, IL operation as they possibly can, but if that is still not enough, they go off shore.  In the past if a customer asked for a 20% price reduction, they immediately reacted with “it can’t be done.”  Now they “figure it out.”  Ozzie is now developing a plant in Viet Nam where costs are $70 per month per employee.  This is much less costly than China which boasts $235 per month per employee.

So how does DNC facilitate continuous throughput improvement at Ballco?  It allows them to standardize their jobs so that almost anyone can operate a machine.  Their operators are not allowed to edit anything.  As Ozzie said, “It’s our statement to our work force; this is how we want it done!  We do not like prima donnas.”  Why did he buy the DNC system from MSI?  Because most people selling DNC systems today are ma and pa operations and he wanted the support of MSI.

Ozzie has a lot to teach all of us about the making of a niche and holding on to it.  Ballco is a very successful company with a lot of great people, driven by a leader with tremendous focus and relentless commitment to being the best by continually increasing throughput.