Welding and fabrication shop tour of CMP attachments 4 k vid

So, when I quit my previous job to join CMP Attachments, I actually lost a lot because I had a company car. Yes. Pension plan, paid medical care, full insurance, and the salary was lower when I came here. So you gave up all that to work in Derek's garage? When you put it that way, it sounds a little worse. If you need an excavator bucket, we can cut it, assemble it, powder coat it, and deliver it to you in one day. I discussed this with my father, whose advice I trust a lot, and he thought I was crazy. Remember guys, this is 3/8 inch thick AR 400 steel vs. 1/2 inch of regular steel. So, it is stronger and thinner. And that's why you use it. That's why our products sell —we use the best quality materials. And if you don't start with something high-quality, the result will be the same. I don't see anyone here as just hired workers. We are like one family here. So, the material comes from one side. He is being cut. He is being bent. It is processed on machines. It is welded and shipped. Sent to the customer. Well , guys. We're back with our "Listen While You Work" series. This is a series of videos designed so that you can put on your headphones and you don't have to watch the video to understand what's going on. With this video series, I want to talk to experts in our industry and share their knowledge with all of us. Today we'll take a look behind the scenes with Andrew. He is the manager of CMP Attachments. He and his owner, Derek, grew this attachment manufacturing company , increasing sales from $400,000 six years ago to over $4 million. And they produce everything in the USA. This is a pretty unique story, and I thought many of you would find it interesting and perhaps helpful. If you like this video series, its success depends on you. From your activity: likes, comments, and shares. And if you know of any interesting guests to interview, let me know in the comments below, because I need people to talk to. So, I would be happy to hear your suggestions. Without wasting any time, let's find out how this shop was able to grow 10 times in just six years. And do you really want to know why little squirrels are crawling all over me? Is this something unusual ? OK. So, in the first part of this series, we chatted with Derek and learned how he built his business. Andrew, come out to us. Look, he's already made a little announcement. In the next episode, we’ll talk to Andrew about how he runs this shop, how he maintains quality control, and how the business went from occupying a small part of a building to expanding almost twice its size in just two years. So, without wasting any time, let's jump into today's video and see what Andrew is up to. OK. What did you say? When I quit my previous job to come to CMP Attachments, I had to sacrifice a lot because I had a company car. Yes. Pension plan, paid health insurance, full package, and on top of that I had to accept a lower salary to come here. So you lost all that to work in Derek's garage? When you say it like that, it sounds a little worse. I discussed it with my father, I trust his advice a lot, and he thought I was crazy. When I arrived, there were just the three of us in the garage near Derek's house. So, there was a stability factor. You don't feel that peace of mind when you go in there, you know. It was Derek's same two-car garage. Yes. It was a little better than that though. It was a 36 by 50 foot hangar. Frame shed. Oh, of course. You know, if you needed to go to the bathroom, you had to go inside and hope that your family had already left, because otherwise it was a bit awkward when you wanted to wash your hands. We had dinner at his kitchen table. We ate lunch every day at his kitchen table. So it was a personal connection. In fact, it's still like that here. We are all here like one family. There are 12 of us guys now, and we have a common chat room where everyone communicates, it's a real brotherhood, to be honest . That's the only way to describe it. I don't see anyone here as just employees. We are like one family. So CMP takes care of the raw materials directly. They don't order anything made in, for example, China. Everything is built here, in our own production facility . This is something I want to emphasize because there are certain companies that manufacture attachments outside of the US, right? It arrives in the US and they just put it together. We make an effort to use products made in the United States, and if we can't, we make it ourselves. So some of the products that you make are things like this hydrocapture, right? Is this a hydraulic grab, a rotary grab? What do you call it? Um, this is a rotary excavator grab . Our name for it is hydrograbbing. Of course. And another thing we're really proud of that's 100% made in the United States is the paint. The engine is made in the USA. All steel is made in the USA . The cylinders are made in Minnesota. Everything here is a product of the United States. You were telling me something about steel. Can we come through here? Yes. So we have three different types of steel here. We don't make anything from A36 material. We are trying to replace it with the 50th class. So, the tensile strength increases from 36,000 pounds to 50,000 pounds. So it is much stronger than it was from the beginning. So we have 50th grade, AR400 and T1 material. We don't use cheap materials. We try to start with the best. OK. What are we going to do next, Andy? Okay, guys. I have these two pieces of metal. This one —AR400. This one is A36. If you look, you'll see that the A36 is half an inch thick, and the AR400 is 3/8 inch thick. I'm working with A36, but I want to show you what the difference is. We bend them at a certain angle, and I'll show you on the screen how much force in tons our press will need to make that bend . We will check both samples. Let's see who wins. We will bend them exactly 10 degrees. Good. Now the effort is between 12 and 13 tons to bend it. 12 and 13 tons to bend AR 400. This, this is A36 steel, also known as low carbon steel. Good. And the reason we won't bend it too much is because it's dangerous. So if anyone is wondering why we don't bend it 90 degrees, here's why. Okay, let's begin. OK. So, we're going to bend it a little bit more. It's about 10 degrees here. Now look here. We have 19 tons here. 19 tons. Keep in mind guys, this is 3/8 inch of AR 400 steel versus half inch of low carbon steel. So it's stronger and thinner, and that's what you use. And that's why people buy our products, because we use higher quality materials. If you don't start with something high-quality, you won't get a good result. So we have material from 1/8 inch all the way up to 3 inches that we can cut ourselves. We can do powder coating here. We have a 4 by 6 foot oven. So we can do sandblasting on site and then powder coating. Literally, if you need an excavator bucket, we can cut it, assemble it, paint it, and give it to you all in one day. Do you do custom orders? Oh, of course. As for painting, no. But if someone says, "Oh, I want my teeth to be positioned like this." Oh, definitely. Oh, you do. Almost everything we do is probably a slight variation of something we've already done before. And this is something I mentioned earlier when I have to touch up a drawing. Maybe we have a file for a 36- inch bucket, and the customer needs a 40- inch one. Okay, we'll make him a 40-inch one. So when you do a 40- inch, do you already have a ready-made file or do you... We just modify the existing one. Of course. Well, show the production . Let's go through and see what you have . I'll take that, Derek. We have Derek, the owner , who holds the camera for us . That's what you call teamwork, right, Derek? So, this is our powder coating area. This is a spraying chamber. So we can do all the spraying here. And the advantage of powder coating over regular paint is that there are no harmful fumes. So if the craftsman applying the powder coating has the right equipment, the rest of the workers in the shop don't have to suffer . They don't smell any fumes. They don't even know. They don't even realize what's happening. When did you install the powder coating chamber? Uh, about a year and a half ago. Of course. And the biggest thing we've noticed because of this is that we can speed up the turnaround. We can deliver the product to the customer much faster. Do you paint all your products yourself or do you outsource it? We outsource it simply because we can't do it ourselves very effectively, but when we need to do something, we have the ability to do it. So what we do is we hang the material on this rack after sandblasting, roll it into the spray booth, paint it, and it gets an electrical charge. So the advantage of powder coating over regular paint is that it gets into all the cavities that you might not see when spraying paint. Of course. And when it's done, we roll it into the oven, where it bakes at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. As soon as you can touch it, it has hardened . If you can pick it up, it's ready to go. We take out the letter. We have layout software on our computers . Everything decomposes, falls onto the plasma table. He is being cut. Once cut, it goes to the next bending area and then goes to the welders where it is directly assembled. So, you guys have expanded. First, you, Derek, took over this building. It was a canopy, as you said, Andrew. I see that roofline change right there. So you took the center section up to those two big gen fans there. This is your main headquarters. That's right. Then you decided to develop in that direction. So you built a building that way. And now you are in the process of developing the building in that direction. True. You're trying to make the process a little smoother. The material comes in from one side, it is cut, bent, machined , welded, and it is ready to ship. Ready to ship. How long does it take to make an average product? It all depends on what it is, but if we take , say, a 50th class excavator bucket, we could probably do it in half a day if we had to. Of course. Without powder coating. With powder coating. With powder, with powder coating. If I needed a powder coated bucket , it would take about 10 minutes to sandblast, probably 20 minutes to prep, and then bake. So, you developed this system together to achieve this efficiency? I think that's something we both touched on in part . You know, he says one thing, I say another, we find a compromise, or, you know, he has an idea about something. Yes, that's good. And, you know, we just see problems and solve them as much as possible. But you don't always...do you sometimes agree to disagree, or do you always have a shared vision and you work through everything or a process? We have, uh, meetings almost every day. Um, yeah, we usually post...we always have problems while we're growing up. Problems arise all the time, and we just try to solve each one, and each problem somehow gets tweaked and changed, and then a process starts to build up, and when we see a process, we just follow it once it works. So you're on the same page, and I think that's important to point out. Coordination is the most important thing we've learned over the last couple of years between what's happening there and the orders coming in. We must have a plan. So, Derek heads the office that controls everything. You are designing. Andrew, you're the one responsible for turning raw materials into finished products, right? Yes. OK. So, this is our metal bending press. This is a 200- ton press. You actually shape, it shapes the wear strips to fit them to this skin. This , this cladding—this is a 50th grade material. The wear-resistant strip is AR 400. So it will take the wear. OK. And AR stands for abrasion resistance. This is the beginning of a loader bucket. This will be a bucket with a volume of 4 yards and a width of 100 inches. Will it be painted? Is everything you see red, white, and blue? No. Um, a lot of black . Black, as well as red, white and blue. This will be our accumulation zone. So, these are projects waiting to be made. They are already cut, but they still need to be bent on the other side. On this side, they are bent and ready to go. So every day I look at this shelf, and that's how I plan what's going to happen, who's going to do what, and what's ready. And if something needs to be done, we'll take care of it. This is our machining area. So, next we have two CNC machines, a CNC milling machine, a manual milling machine, and a manual lathe. So if we need pins, bushings or anything else, we can do it right here on site. So, you make your own pins and bushings . We manufacture a boss into which the bushing is pressed, but we use a hardened chrome pin and a hardened bushing. Of course. So we can do all this in production . We can make a boss for a bushing, press it in, and then ship it on. Then everything can be cooked. That is, everything is done on site . Strictly speaking, we are able to do whatever we need to— that's the main conclusion. Do you always do everything yourself, or is it better to outsource it, and when you're in a pinch, do you use your own capabilities? Is this what I understood correctly? We cooperate with a mechanical workshop that manufactures mainly serial parts. Simply because we are a little more busy with single orders here, and it is more difficult with large volumes . This is a serial part. For example, all our mechanical parts for the hydrograph. Of course. We order them from a mechanical workshop . So they come to us as a kit, and everything is ready to go. But it's made in the USA, right? Right. Right here in Minnesota, right here in Wisconsin. Of course. Good. I just want to make sure these guys understand how dedicated you are to your work. We go to great lengths to make sure everything is made in Minnesota, USA. OK. Let's look at the next stage of the process. We don't work much with tubular structures. We try to make everything integrated so that the structure is bent from sheet metal. Yes, wait a minute. What do you mean when you say you do n't work much with... We don't use it that often . As you can see, there are some pipes, angles, strip metal, and so on. We do everything on a plasma table and bend it to our needs, instead of adapting ready-made products to our project . We cut parts on a plasma table. So if we can use material that is already on the table and that would probably go to waste, and integrate it into our project, then we gain much more. Of course. A significant part is P1. This is a higher grade material than what you get from structural steel , pipes, or angles. Of course? So often the quality of steel we use for flat sheets is simply better. This is our welding and metal fabrication station. We usually have two or three people working to assemble the products. I mean, they're just preparing everything for welding. They assemble the parts, weld them together , and then send them to the welding line. We have one or two specialists who only do welding, and the rest assemble the structures . Right now, Wyatt is building a 6-foot brush cutter for a skid steer. And here he is assembling rollers for the gas pipe. These are essentially stands that are placed on the ground so that you can place a plastic gas pipe on them for welding. Jesse is welding one of those four-yard buckets we saw a minute ago. So there is a lot of variety here, it's never the same. Something new every day . Is this good or bad? Oh, I think it's good because it motivates the guys . This maintains their interest. This keeps our drive going. What about you, as the owner? Do you feel like your efficiency has decreased due to working with over 150 different products? Is that 150, Derek? Total 180. 180. Do you think that efficiency could be improved if you only practiced three types? Or maybe there's no market for just three? No. I mean, a lot of this, like your buckets, is made overseas. Many of your excavator buckets, almost all of the original buckets, are made overseas. In Mexico, South Korea. And that's why it's hard to set up production in the US, because you need a versatile group of people who can switch from rollers to front-end loader buckets or grapples. So, we try to empower people and retain really good professionals who can do a little bit of everything . And if we can produce an assortment, for example grippers, we can produce them on an assembly line. We usually always have someone constantly assembling the rotary grippers. So now we have reached the point where the process is set up. Now we are considering the option with a robot. By next summer, we will have a robot that will collect hydro traps. So I want the guys to keep moving because that's our business plan. That's the sound you hear in the background. We could try to hide it, but it's a real work shop. And it actually got a little quieter here, did n't it? Yes. For those of you who were wondering why this welding machine sounds so strange. Well, let me tell you, it's a pulse welder. So, he uses a double impulse. This is a multi-core processor. We invested, each device costs about $20,000. We invested in good welding machines to ensure that the machines are reliable and provide the best quality welds. Many of our skid steer attachments are now built in the USA. That's right. OK. We ...so we're not too keen on skid steer attachments because there are a lot of people who do it very well, and they make it in the USA . Our work is different . Many excavator attachments are manufactured in Mexico, South Korea, and China. Many of these companies import buckets and resell them, but they are not manufactured here. I'm the only one I know who's actually trying to get into mass production of mini excavator buckets in the US. There are several large companies that manufacture large excavator buckets, but in the small segment, there is extreme competition. Certainly. This...this is difficult. And I told these guys in the morning meeting. When I first started making grabs, we weren't making any money from it . We were losing money. But we have honed the process. We have made adjustments. We understood how to work effectively. And it is at this stage that we are now with buckets for mini excavators. We are probably at a level now where we are not yet making a big profit, but we are competitive compared to imported buckets. But I'll say it right now , in about a year we'll be making a very good profit from mini excavator buckets. Well, how...how are you going to become profitable? What would you change? Change really depends on everyone's willingness to change, to find faster ways, and it's all evolving. Perhaps the most important thing is to organize projects so that when the welder gets to work, everything is bent correctly. All the projects, the pins, everything is documented, everything is available to them. It sounds very simple, but it is actually very complicated. So, one of the things I want to talk about, as I jump in, is that you both have been perfecting the process of machining and manufacturing these parts for over 13 years. If you just joined, this is part two. In the first part, we talked to Derek. He founded this company 13 years ago. For the first seven years, he worked part- time. Six years ago, he switched to full-time employment. Increased his income from $485,000 to over $ 4 million per year. It is currently in a period of rapid expansion and aggressively capturing the attachments market , while keeping production entirely in the United States. Did I summarize correctly? Yes, I agree. So, the goal now is to optimize the process and become more competitive without compromising quality, without using cheap materials from abroad. You are going to focus next year on improving your manufacturing process to speed it up, produce more buckets and attachments in fewer man-hours, and pass those savings on to your customers. Am I right? This is exactly what we are…