ShopSolutions Case Histories of Manufacturing Problem Solving Shop Thrives on Supplier’s Tooling Expertise M
ena, AR, (pop. 6000) is 135 miles west of Little Rock and 90 miles from the nearest interstate highway and home to Sterling Machinery Co., a job shop with 90 employees and about 65 CNC machines. The busy shop serves a varied list of customers including oil & gas companies, commercial laundry equipment and hydraulic component manufacturers, and other OEMs with its variety of machining and turning processes, including secondary pro- cesses like CNC ID and OD grinding, honing and broaching. Sterling has been able to survive and thrive in spite of eco- nomic downturns, tough competition, and its remote location
a brief hiatus and restored it to family ownership. Bob’s wife, Wendy, is chief financial officer. Daughter Ashley Vacca (Scott’s wife) is vice president of finance. Bob and Wendy’s oldest son, Erick Martin, moved his family from Little Rock so he could become Sterling’s vice president of manufacturing. “Having family members in key positions to ensure Sterling’s future for our employees, our town and our children’s children became our goal,” said Wendy Martin. To differentiate Sterling from other job shops, said Bob
Martin, “We realized we had to go into the more difficult type of machined parts. To effectively compete in that arena, we saw we had to do everything the right way, all the way from manufacturing planning to carbide usage.”
Family that owns and operates Sterling Machinery (from left to right): Scott Vacca, Ashley Vacca, Bob Martin, Wendy Martin and Erick Martin.
through a combination of carefully chosen suppliers and equip- ment, customer diversification, and strong reciprocal loyalty be- tween management and employees. According to Scott Vacca, vice president-sales, Sterling’s focus on customer service, self- sufficiency and hard work has enabled the company to grow and prosper “on our own little manufacturing island.” Retired machine tool salesman Rex Martin founded Sterling Machinery in his garage in 1972, employing himself; his wife, Marion; and son, Bob, who later reacquired the company after
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ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | January 2014
Streamlining acquisition of supplies was an important step. Sterling purchases all of its MRO items through Arkansas Mill Supply, headquartered in Pine Bluff. An Arkansas Mill employee works full-time in the shop. “Bringing them in has been a huge advantage,” Vacca said. “We tell them what we want and they purchase it.” Establishing a tool crib boosted respon- siveness. According to Bob Martin, “Years ago we had our tools scattered all over the shop, and by the time everybody gathered what they needed for a job we lost a lot of time.” Prior to establishing the tool crib, Sterling received 52 tooling invoices per week. Now it handles one. The crib
is managed with software from CribMaster, with 99% of the items in the crib bar-coded for scanning. To further enhance its competitiveness, Sterling sought to fine-tune its selection process for carbide suppliers. The com- pany drew up a comprehensive testing program and brought five carbide suppliers into the shop for one week each, running the same parts on the same machines. Among the suppliers, Vacca said, “Seco Tools was outstanding. What im- pressed us about Seco was their ability to bring us knowledge
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