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One metal manufacturer, one name, many services
Merrill Technologies Group prepares to double in size in five years
- By Tim Heston
- June 3, 2016
- Article
- Shop Management
Defining a “fabricator” can be tricky business. You have the custom business, those who produce sheet metal, plate, and structural components. You have fabrication departments at manufacturers with a product line. You’ve got industrial fabricators that fabricate custom vessels, process piping, platforms, mezzanines, and the like.
You’ve got custom fabricators who also do a fair amount of machining. Some companies specialize in parts production; others offer comprehensive assembly; and still others coordinate supply chains and offer full-service contract manufacturing, shipping private-label products directly to customers’ customers. They may even design and integrate custom automated machinery, which has sheet metal, machined, and sourced components. Some offer some combination of the above. They don’t fit neatly into a category, and it’s usually for a simple reason: They’re following the demands of customers.
Consider Gary and Mary Kay Yackel’s story. When they founded Merrill Tool & Machine in 1968, they had a Bridgeport mill, a small lathe, and a grinder. At the time they probably couldn’t have imagined what their small machine shop eventually became: Merrill Technologies Group (MTG), a Saginaw, Mich.-based $72 million metal manufacturer offering light and heavy metal fabrication, machining, nondestructive testing, machine building, and engineering services. The company placed eighth on this year’s FAB 40 list.
MTG expanded to different markets by essentially launching another company division or subsidiary to serve a specific customer need: Merrill Fabricators for sheet and plate work; Merrill Aviation & Defense; Merrill Engineering & Integration for custom automation and machine design. The organization even launched its own welding school, Merrill Institute, whose welders go on to work not just at Merrill but at other manufacturers in north central Michigan.
As Director of Marketing Andrea Fisher explained, the naming strategy helped align all of Merrill’s diverse businesses with specific customers. “We had a lot of name equity with specific customers,” she said. “They might only deal with our fabrication services, our machining services, our design engineering.”
Over the years, though, more customers called on Merrill for complex projects, particularly those looking to consolidate their supply chain. When Merrill received such a request for quote, each Merrill business unit would submit a portion of the quote separately to estimators.
To streamline matters and consolidate manufacturing planning, MTG launched its Advanced Planning and Execution Center, or APEX, in the spring of 2016. The new department centralizes sales and business development. Each business unit still has its expertise in specific areas, but everyone now has his or her eye on the entire Merrill enterprise. The ultimate goal, Fisher said, is to build a structure so that Merrill can partner with customers on even the most complex projects, from design through prototype and production.
“Our sales team works all over the country,” Fisher said. “Some specialize in commercial and heavy equipment. Some specialize in aerospace and defense. They all have their niche, but they are now moving toward selling for Merrill, not just Merrill Tool & Machine or Merrill Fabricators.”
Fisher added that APEX is more than just a new sales and centralized planning department. “We call it our secret sauce. This new business process is unique to Merrill. We’ve been developing this for the past 18 months, and we just rolled it out [in the spring]. At a top level, we looked at what our business model has been for the past 50 years, and what it’s going to take to grow over the next 50 years.”
MTG’s history reflects how much manufacturing has changed over the decades. Years ago many companies in metal manufacturing thrived on their defined customer niche. One company fabricated mostly sheet metal but not plate or structural components. A fab shop specialized in fabrication and dabbled only lightly in machining, if they dabbled in it at all.
The modern metal manufacturing landscape is different. Large OEMs are consolidating their supply chains. Rather than source a large project to umpteen suppliers, they may well be looking for one source—a one-stop shop like MTG—to handle it all.
So where will Merrill be in several years, after implementing this new approach to the business? As Fisher put it, “This is all part of our strategic plan we developed in 2015. We hope to double the company size in five years.”
Photos courtesy of Merrill Technologies Group, 989-791-6676, www.merrilltg.com.
About the Author
Tim Heston
2135 Point Blvd
Elgin, IL 60123
815-381-1314
Tim Heston, The Fabricator's senior editor, has covered the metal fabrication industry since 1998, starting his career at the American Welding Society's Welding Journal. Since then he has covered the full range of metal fabrication processes, from stamping, bending, and cutting to grinding and polishing. He joined The Fabricator's staff in October 2007.
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The Fabricator is North America's leading magazine for the metal forming and fabricating industry. The magazine delivers the news, technical articles, and case histories that enable fabricators to do their jobs more efficiently. The Fabricator has served the industry since 1970.
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