Meeting our Customer’s Increasing Market Demands

Rod Taylor
Chief Operating Officer

Brian Walker
Executive Vice President of Sales

In order for businesses to succeed in a highly competitive and volatile market, it is critical to partner with the right manufacturers; manufacturers who are large enough to take on any project size, innovative enough to recommend uncommon and cost saving solutions, yet nimble enough to quickly adjust and alter as needed. Pace Industries is just such a company; uniquely positioned to meet the ever-changing market demands of our customers.

What makes Pace so unique?

Size and Capacity: The size of our company both financially and in footprint is unmatched. Pace currently has eight U.S. sites and two sites in Mexico. Within these sites, there are over 200 die cast machines and over 300 CNC machines. We have our own in-house tool shops that assist our customers in designing the most robust and economical tool for each product design. Having multiple well-equipped sites enables us to provide flexibility in scheduling, capacity and manufacturing, ensuring that customer’s needs are met.

Technology: The technology we employ at these sites runs the gamut from the very basic or standard to very advanced state-of-the-art technology. This array of technology enables us to match our customer’s timeline and cost requirements.

“If our customer’s market needs require a lower cost part that does not require extremely tight tolerances, we have the ability to meet those needs without deploying the newest technology and the higher level systems that inevitably drive costs higher. On the other end of that spectrum, customers that require a very high level of control in the area of part tolerances and higher levels of systems, require equipment that has higher levels of technology (automation, tighter thermal control, higher levels of CNC technology, etc.). ”

— Rod Taylor – Chief Operating Officer

Flexibility: Our flexibility with equipment across several sites allows us to respond to customer supply interruption issues quickly and successfully.

About 3 years ago, one of our largest customers’ competitors suffered supply issues due to a long supply chain from overseas.  The market share that this competitor lost became available to our current customer.  With our sizeable footprint and flexibility and large inventory of equipment, Pace was able to increase supply of parts to our customer in a very short period of time enabling them to capitalize on this changing market demand opportunity.

Additionally, in 2013, our largest operation suffered a major supply interruption that was going to last for many months and potentially impact shipments to several key customers.  Because of our overall company flexibility with equipment capacity and personnel, Pace was able to relocate over 250 tools and approximately $50M in annual sales from the affected plant into other Pace operations with very minimal impact to our customer’s market demands.

Unparalleled Customer Focus: We pride ourselves on providing “uncommon, creative solutions” to ensure our customer’s success. We’ve seen this have a profound impact on our customer’s ability to increase market share, meet customer orders, improve their reputation and thereby successfully get a leg up over their competition. For instance:

• Early Supplier Involvement (ESI) program ensures and optimizes design of die cast parts right from the start which can save customers a lot of money and time by incorporating features which are efficient and cost effective.
•  In Production, we adhere to an APQP process in product introduction that helps deliver a more efficient and timely launch of new programs.
• Our Thermal Control Systems, preventive maintenance programs, DMOs, molten metal management, automation, SWAT teams, Internal Rebuild Teams all help Pace and ultimately the Customer improve their position in the marketplace and helps support market demand.

Executive VP of Sales, Brian Walker, shared an example where one of our clients, a US based manufacturer, implemented a market driven manufacturing model to align with retails sales demand. Pace re-engineered the manufacturing approach, adjusted Kanbans, improved product flow and long range planning to successfully meet these requirements. Our result has successfully reduced manufacturing costs while delivering on customer expectations more consistently. This resulted in market share gain, increased sales and improved margins for the client.

Meeting our customers’ volatile market demands is a very important aspect of achieving our Mission Statement.  Pace differentiates itself from its competition by its flexibility to respond to many different types of market demands, from technology needs, which drives to different levels of product requirements and costs, to successfully responding to changing market demands or supply chain interruptions with its flexibility in the area of equipment and personnel across many different locations.  In these specific areas, Pace is living out its Mission Statement to “Provide uncommon, creative solutions that contribute to the success of our customers”. Give us a call today to see how we can help ensure your success.