PartsBadger
Cedarburg
Industry: Manufacturing
PartsBadger, which makes CNC-manufactured parts for just about every industry, saw the potential for a major manufacturing shutdown in China before it happened. Company leaders sought to address this in two ways: securing manufacturing capacity in other areas, such as Malaysia and Singapore, and investing more in domestic production.
Roy Dietsch, chief executive officer of PartsBadger, said the company decided to act once China extended its New Year shutdown in January. The next day they created a “control center” to lay plans, and shortly after sent employees overseas to establish new links for their international capacity and maintain volumes during the shutdown.
“I think we had the meeting on a Thursday, and then they were there (in Malaysia) on Monday,” Dietsch said.
PartsBadger additionally invested about $750,000 through the purchase of four new CNC machines to beef up domestic output. Dietsch said PartsBadger now does 25% of its manufacturing in house, compared to 5% last year.
Dietsch said these actions were part of a multi-pronged plan that allowed the company to have a number of alternatives to fall back on if needed.
“At the same time we were building up Malaysia, getting production there, we knew we needed to build up the domestic (production) because if Malaysia started dropping off, we would be ready to go domestically,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided the impetus for PartsBadger to grow capacity at home. Dietsch said the company once outsourced all its manufacturing, and just two years ago opened its shop.
“You kind of need to get over this hump to get processes and systems in place to be more efficient, and COVID allowed us to do that,” he said. “Combined with the investment, now we’re running multiple shifts; it’s way more efficient.”
