Phillips changing worlds with inspection product
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Catherine Phillips, co-owner of Phillips Precision, Inc. in Boylston.
Phillips Precision supplies precision machined parts and assemblies for its customers across multiple industries, including food and beverage and electronics. The Boylston company is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Cathy Phillips, co-owner of Phillips Precision with her husband, Steve, spoke about expanding the company’s product line, moves towards greater efficiency, and new hiring practices.
How is the expansion of your machine shop going?
Since our last discussion, Phillips Precision has added a higher production piece of equipment which allows us to more competitively quote production runs and high-complexity milling, in addition to running lights-out work. Late last year, we purchased a KIWA500 Horizontal Milling Center from Methods Machine Tool sales in Sudbury. For a horizontal milling center, it is one with a larger work envelope than most in New England. The machine is capable of producing parts as large as 500 millimeters.
One of the main reasons we purchased this machine is to be able to produce our own products faster and in higher volume. We are realizing between a 25- and 40-percent reduction in time to make our Inspection Arsenal and Laser Arsenal quick-swap fixture plates. Plates previously run in multiple operations and in multiple machines are now run complete in the new horizontal mill.
Not only does it speed up the process, it reduces the risk of scrapping parts with less movement between machines.
How has your product business grown?
The product line is performing very well as manufacturers latch on to our new and industry-changing inspection technique. Steve Phillips, the president of Phillips Precision and an inventor, demonstrated our quick-swap inspection fixture system at a company in Connecticut just this week. The company’s focus is contract inspection for other manufacturers. The team there was absolutely giddy over the possibilities Inspection Arsenal fixturing now offers them. I believe one comment was, "You’ve turned our whole world upside down!" In the near future, they will be integrating our fixture system into their process to organize, simplify and speed service to their customers.
Growth in the product line is what drove us to purchase the horizontal milling center. Large original equipment manufacturers of concrete measuring machines now offer our fixture system with their machines, and we have a number of new distributors on board as well. We continue to exhibit at industry tradeshows and sell direct as we build distribution channels.
The products division of Phillips Precision will increase production of our plates and workholding components in addition to the fixture design/build service we provide. We are seeing a steep increase in requests for fixture design using our products. Recently, we had an inquiry from a large auto maker that is evaluating us for a corporate-wide retooling effort in their inspection departments. This would be a huge win and great exposure for us.
You have been involved with the Manufacturing Advancement Center Workforce Innovation Collaborative training program. What has that been like, and has it been a useful recruiting tool?
MACWIC and Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership have long been a resource for our own training, as well as producing shop floor personnel through their training programs. We have hired machine operators in the recent past who have been extremely successful employees. When we look to hire, MACWIC is one of the first calls we make.
How many employees have you hired in the last year? For what positions?
We’ve hired one of our co-op students from Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School Advanced Manufacturing Program. He is a recent graduate and joins us with a great foundation as a CNC Machinist.
Are you looking to hire in the future? If so, for what jobs?
Additional hiring will really depend on which areas of the business expand and how fast. We’re always on the lookout for talented machinists to support growth. We’ll need fixture design support and potentially another quality inspector.
What are your future plans?
We have seen an uptick this year in general job shop work in the machine shop, however we’re working to add customers, especially ones that require ISO9001:2015 registration. We recently passed our surveillance audit with flying colors so the LEAN, quality mentality is fully integrated into our business processes.
For the product business, we’ll dedicate resources to bringing the product line overseas, where we have limited reach. In addition, there is an untapped market in fixturing for laser marking services so we’ll begin to expand the Laser Arsenal as well.
Anything else you'd like to add?
As a company, we’re working to change our image from complex prototype and short run production to ‘prototypes to production.’ We continue to produce prototypes -- including 3D printing -- however we now have the capability to move that part directly to higher production. Our laser marking service adds an impressive finish of logos, serialization, and other markings to customer parts as well. And did I mention we’re one of the first machine shops in the area to be awarded ISO9001:2015 registration?
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by Laura Finaldi, WBJ staff writer.
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