2017cnc10-11

36 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST October/November 2017 ily, but all the others are treated as if they are blood related. “We have a very low to zero turnover on employees,” describes Timo. “The average employee has been with us 10-30+ years. We treat our people well and it pays off in production.” Years ago management made a big investment geared towards em- ployees being able to spend more time with their families. Swiss Productions went to a four-day work week for everyone. They run two 10-hour shifts Monday through Thursday. “We work hard and have three day weekends every week,” continues Timo. “It helps promote a less stress free work environment and the employees get to spend more time with their families. Everyone knows their job and does it.” Timo transitioned from the shop foreman to general man- ager 7 years ago. You might find him supporting sales or sched- uling production, but everything they do at Swiss Productions is done as a company. All of the management team wear many hats and contribute where needed. “I started in 1990 sweeping floors and changing bars,” tells Timo. “In those days we worked six days a week and 14-16 hours a day at times. We did that for about 7 years to build the business up to where it is now. One of our first big customers was Trompeter Electronics out of Westlake Village. President, Ken Putman was knocking on doors trying to drum up business in the early days of Swiss. He kept going back over and over and they finally gave him a shot at a single part. It wasn’t a huge order, but it was an order. The part ended up running bad and he spent the next few days redo- ing all the parts to complete the order and get it to the customer – ON TIME.” Trompeter Electronics became their largest cus- tomer for more than 15 years. Ken’s determination to make it right for the customer is what they pride themselves on to this day. “We produce 3.5 million parts a month with less than a 1% rejection rate,” concludes Timo. “I’m the general manager, but I’m not everyone’s boss. The VP of the company is not the boss. Our customers are our bosses. They are our number one prior- ity now and always.” Swiss Productions is in the process of updating their fleet of Star Swiss turning centers. Currently they have more than 37 machines ranging in size and capabilities. They recently added four brand new Star SB-20’s to replace six aging machines. They hope to add four more in 2018. The newmachines are yielding tremendous gains in production over the machines they replaced. Swiss Productions has been a fan of the Japanese manufacturer many years. They love having continuity between all the machines to make it easier on operators.