25 Jun 2015
SelfLube the leading U.S. manufacturer of precision mold and die components broke ground for a major expansion of its manufacturing operations in Coopersville, MI.
13,000 square feet is being added to its manufacturing facility. When complete this fall, new machines will be installed and additional staff will be trained and hired. Some trainee machinists have already been hired. The company expects the move in to be late September - just in time for its 25th Anniversary.
"The tooling industry is growing and we need to grow with it," says SelfLube owner Phil Allor. "Actually to properly serve our customers, we need to stay a little ahead of the curve, which is what this expansion is all about." The biggest constraint for the industry in meeting this growth challenge is limited resources. To help overcome this constraint, SelfLube has been pushing the use of standard and semi-standard components. This would set tool shops out of the business of added component making, thereby freeing up resources for more high value-added work. "Redirecting resources from low value-added work to high value-added work gets you more sales and higher margins. What's not to like," adds Allor.
Today more and more build shops are making the switch to using standard components. Therefore, the demand has increased and SelfLube is planning to be the number one supplier.
This is not SelfLube's first big expansion, in fact there have been several in the 25 years it has been in operation. When it first opened its doors in 1990, the company was a two-man shop, making a few precision components, mainly wear strips, for a few local tool shops in West Michigan. Since then, the company has expanded and re-invented itself tenfold. Now, the company manufactures over 10,000 standard components with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.