Process focus leads builder to success.
Building on software programming strength.

The customer is always at the top of our organization chart," says John Drake, president, Drake Mfg., Warren, OH. "We don't want to frustrate them with a complicated chain of command. So every one of our skilled people has a direct line of communication with and accountability to the customer."

That approach to serving its customers is no less true today than when the company was founded 25 years ago by Mr. Drake and his partner John Garland, vice president of manufacturing. After the most recent five years of continued growth averaging 10% to 15% a year, Drake Mfg. has reached critical mass--the point at which size demands a full management team. Managers have been promoted from within or joined the company from outside to take the reins of sales and marketing, R&D, systems engineering, manufacturing and MIS with the proviso that their focus continue to be strictly on the customer and the customer's needs.

The company has earned its reputation by improving and automating machining processes for some of the most demanding precision and high volume manufacturers. Drake internal and external thread grinders, internal bore grinders and, most recently, hobbing machines have proven themselves in the automotive, cutting tool and precision manufacturing industries to be reliable and cost effective performers.

"We aren't going to build as products that puts our reputation at risk, and our customers aren't going to buy a product that puts their careers in jeopardy," says Mr. Drake. "That's a good combination for a partnership."

Drake's product lines all began with an idea about improving a process, about producing parts better. "Our customers don't care about machines. They care about getting parts out the door--reliably and economically," Mr. Drake states emphatically. To his way of thinking, understanding the process is the key to improving it.

"In thread grinding, for example, we set out to define the process and set a standard in which value drives the equation. Our machines are designed to run better with less maintenance," says Mr. Drake. "We are guaranteeing that our machines will produce parts to the customer's required Cpk on his shop floor. As long as materials supplied to him are on spec, that's what we'll deliver."There is no service department at Drake Mfg. "There is a 100% direct line open between our customers and our engineers and machine builders. Our service motto is simply stated: If you build it, you service it. Of Drake's 45 employees, 30 are involved in customer contact. Their responsibility is to engineer and build the machines, to write the software and to make sure that everything works as promised.

"Our people take a lot of pride in their work because they know they'll be the ones who have to go out and make it work in the customer's plant," says Mr. Drake. After initial runoffs at Drake's plant, machines are installed at the customer plant and run until the machines are producing "parts out the door."

"They'll be up and running by noon" is no idle boast for Drake personnel. Then the customer is trained to run the machines.

As the warranty expires, Drake technicians go to the customer plant and open the machine to examine internal parts, wear characteristics and operating condition to make sure that no problems have developed. A customer contact report is generated at this time. Customer problems at any time elicit a "you crash, we dash" response from Drake representatives, both engineers and machine builders. Twenty-four-hour-response is typical.

Drake personnel are expected to make six customer visits per quarter. All in all, in a year Drake's customer contact personnel will report more than 800 customer contacts, half by phone, half in person.

Currently of the 300 CNC machines that Drake has in the field, about 200 are thread grinders, which have succeeded in large measure due to the sophisticated yet easy-to-use software programming developed for customer applications. Software is tailored to the customer's needs in a menu-driven format that allows the customer to simply punch in the diameter, lead and pitch and start making parts. When the customer's product family changes, Drake writes new software.

"A Drake customer will never have to write a parts program or engineer a process," says Mr. Drake. "We make our machines "Part Smart" and back that up with necessary software. It's a good follow-on business, too."

There's nothing routine about the product categories that Drake has chosen to pursue. "They were selected because we felt we could make a significant improvement," Mr. Drake states. Current product lines include the following:

• GS:TE external thread grinder, which features front dress and robot loading options, used for automotive parts such as steering worms.


• GS:TI internal thread grinder is used for parts like ball nuts or precision parts where close mating is critical.


• GS:I bore grinder is used on automotive valve lifters and can achieve Cpk up to 4 and process limits down to 20 millionths in high volume applications. It features automatic loading/unloading and post-process gaging providing closed loop feedback to the machine control.


• GS:H gear hobber line consists of machines with capacities of 6" to 36" diameter gears.


• CS:G retrofit control for virtually all types of grinding machines is a quick and inexpensive way to bring an older grinder's controls into current technology. Retrofitting can be done in the customer's plant in a matter of days.

The success of Drake's focus on process improvement has caught the eye of other machine tool builders. Drake has been approached to do rebuilding by one company and to solve some sticky software programming problems for CNC controls for new machines.

Like most quality conscious machine builders today, Drake has made the investment in becoming ISO 9001 certified. It took the better part of 11 months and cost about $100,000 to pass the certification audit and will take another $25,000 a year to stay certified. Mr. Drake believes the investment is well worth it as it assures his customers of the company's commitment to world class quality in manufacturing.

Mr. Drake is not alone in feeling the crunch for good trained personnel and the company supports apprenticeship training and espouses mentoring for its younger personnel. "Our philosophy depends on them since we really do turn them loose to do what has to be done. The one thing you can be sure of is that our management team will not get in the way of serving our customers."

A company that obviously prides itself on its ability to improve manufacturing processes, Drake already has its next product entry off the drawing board and in the prototype stage, getting ready for a September introduction.