Insights: Phillips Precision focuses on local recruiting
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Catherine Phillips, co-owner of Phillips Precision, Inc. in Boylston.
Phillips Precision Inc.’s touch can be spotted everywhere from Table Talk Pies to Bill Belichik’s head set. The Boylston company supplies precision machined parts and assemblies for its customers across industries spanning from electronics to food and beverage. In June, the company received its ISO 9001:2015 Certification.
Cathy Phillips, who co-owns the company with her husband, Steve, spoke with the Worcester Business Journal about running a family business, recruiting, and being a relative newcomer to the Central Massachusetts manufacturing scene -- even after nearly 20 years in business.
What is your mission?
Phillips Precision, Inc. strives to be a world-class supplier of precision machined parts and assemblies to achieve success through a shared commitment to meet or exceed our customer’s expectations. We accomplish this through teamwork, continuous improvement, and innovation. To achieve our mission, it is essential that we focus on quality in everything we do throughout our organization.
Which markets do you serve?
Phillips Precision, Inc. machining division serves a variety of industries from paper, auto racing, food/beverage, electronics and many more. As a full service machine shop “job shop” we manufacturing components for any industry needing complex short-run production and prototypes. Whenever you eat a Table Talk Pie you can think of Phillips Precision since we re-manufactured most of their line – including the crimping dies. When Bill Belichick tossed his headset to the ground, think of us – we make some of the components for the Bose headset.
Phillips Products Division, with its fixturing and work holding designs, serves all manufacturers that inspect or laser mark parts worldwide. Inspection Arsenal™ and Laser Arsenal™ is a new, LEAN inspection fixture concept that is really catching fire and saving manufacturers tens of thousands of dollars. Companies like Milwaukee Tool are swapping over their quality departments world-wide, SpaceX, Triangle Manufacturing, Kennebec Technologies and hundreds more now use Inspection Arsenal™ exclusively in their metrology labs. Local companies like Central Coating use Laser Arsenal™ plates to speed up their in-house laser marking service.
You have business expertise, and Steve brings an engineering background to the table. How is that beneficial for the company?
We really have always had the best of both worlds when it comes to running our business. I love business administration/operations and marketing while Steve is a very talented machinist/designer, teacher, and inventor. Our responsibilities are so different yet overlap where necessary in making higher level business decisions. We have always had equal share in the business and equal amounts of enthusiasm for its success. We both came from large corporations which helped us model our own business, but with a small company/family feel.
By Central Mass standards, you're a relatively new player in the region, having opened in 1997. What has that been like?
Nearly twenty years in business seems like it would be enough time to feel mature and not one of the newbies, however the Worcester area has such a long and established manufacturing history, comparatively we are still “new” in town. Steve and I work best when challenged and we feel like we’ve been able to bring a high quality and valuable service to the area. We maintain a very modern facility with new equipment, software, and computing technology in addition to a highly skilled staff.
How do your products make processes for manufacturers easier?
Through the products division we design, manufacture and sell a line of quick-swap inspection fixtures and work holding that is truly an industry game-changer. For decades, the only fixture plate offered was one that covered the whole granite of a CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine) which meant that inspectors would have to build inspection setups and break them down when a new part came up for inspection. [Quality control] has always been a huge bottleneck in manufacturing. With the new magnetically interlocking, puzzle-like fixture plates, inspectors are able to set up any number of inspection setups at one time without the need to break down and rebuild setups. The fixture system is so simple and universal, any number of employees can inspect and it can be used on a variety of inspection equipment from traditional CMMs, Vision systems, to optical comparators and portable shop-floor CMMs.
We have a number of case studies, and more to come, that clearly present the savings of tens of thousands of dollars due to faster inspections. In fact, Triangle Manufacturing in New Jersey saved over $125,000 dollars on just one inspection project of more than 3,000 medical devices that required 100 percent inspection. They cut the time in half due to the new way they were able to program the job and the quick-swap nature of the fixture system.
Where are most of your clients located?
The majority of clients for the machine shop are within a 50 mile radius, however we do serve a few companies nationally. The product business is national with plans to distribute worldwide.
How many employees do you currently have, and are you currently recruiting? If so, for which positions?
We have 14 employees currently, two of whom we just hired from Assabet Valley in Marlborough. We in the process of training the new employees, cross training others, and plan to hire someone to manage the Quality System and potentially do some job estimating.
How do you recruit new employees?
Steve and I both hold positions on the Assabet Valley High School and QCC manufacturing technology advisory boards, as well as being members of the MACWIC/MassMEP. We are very interested in keeping the vocational programs in our area current. We do recruit from these local schools and from the MassMEP/MACWIC training programs. We’ve had great success with the recruits from these programs.
What are your future plans?
We are working diligently to expand business both in the machine shop and through the product line. Once we receive our ISO 2015 registration, we’ll be able to expand the number of companies we work with. The product business is really in its infancy and we plan to build master distribution worldwide. This, of course, means more machinery and additional employees.
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