SEE THE LIGHT: KEEPING THINGS SIMPLE ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

Listen to talk radio or the cable news pundits, and it?s easy to believe Michigan and its largest city Detroit are an industrial wasteland. True, the unemployment levels are the highest in the nation, and the battering the automotive industry has taken has been significant and deeply felt. But as automotive and its many related manufacturing industries restructure, so, too, are the surviving suppliers. Ossineke Industries (Ossineke, MI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Star Cutter Inc. (Farmington Hills, MI), is one of those survivors.

Star Cutter was established on Epworth Boulevard in Detroit in 1927, serving Chrysler and Chevrolet Gear and Axle with 10 employees. From this small beginning, the company developed into a world leader in the cutting tool industry with five manufacturing facilities in four divisions producing seven product lines, from gear-cutting machine tools to gun drills, reamers, and broaches. Each plant specializes in manufacturing a specific type of product or service.

Today, Star Cutter has grown to nearly 350 employees, with Michigan manufacturing plants in Elk Rapids, Lewiston, Ossineke, Farmington Hills, and East Tawas. Through its international organization, the company markets and services its products in North America, South America, Europe, and the Far East.

Since 1972, Ossineke has manufactured deep-hole drills, gun drills, carbide drill tips, and steel shanks in northern Michigan, near the shore of Lake Huron. ?Our big customers are automotive, the arms industry, heavy equipment, small engine, oil and gas, and agricultural,? says plant manager William (Bill) Keen. ?We do turning, milling, threading, tube forming, heat treating, annealing, straightening, and many operations in between.?

But in the economic downturn of the past few years the plant has suffered, seeing sales dip 40 percent and head count reduced in half from years past. ?Cutting costs, while maintaining if not increasing efficiencies, is job one,? Keen says.

In the mid-1960s, Star Cutter represented a European model of an external grinding machine, which it sold and also used in its own plants for decades. ?Prior to the late 1980s, we didn?t run CNC grinding equipment; everything was manual,? notes applications engineer and facilities manager David Leslie. ?Holding sizes and step lengths was very operator-influenced.

When it came time to upgrade, Ossineke Industries chose CNC grinders from Toyoda Machinery (Wixom, MI). ?Where we were limited in the style and amount of grinding we could do based on our equipment, the straightforwardness of these machines was a big advantage,? adds Leslie. ?They were easier to set up and operate and they increased our capabilities at the same time. We could program the new grinders for eight tools, versus one at a time on our manual equipment.?

Ossineke originally bought three GE4 series general-purpose cylindrical grinders, the last being a GE4P-100 purchased in 2007. Star Cutter has other Toyoda grinders in its other plants, too. ?I hear from all the plants that their machines are reliable, provide excellent size control, and are easy to maintain,? says Leslie. For a plant that mainly produces gun drills, Ossineke does a ?phenomenal amount of OD grinding,? says Keen. ?A year ago, we were running 24 hours a day for five or six days per week. Even today, with reduced hours, downtime is unacceptable. We schedule offline maintenance, and every time there?s someone at Toyoda jumping through hoops for us. Our experience, whether it?s replacing parts or rebuilding machines, has been a ?whatever it takes? attitude that we?ve come to expect. There?s never been a problem.?

That attitude, plus the ease of programming and operation on Ossineke?s new grinders, was put to the test in July 2002 when a fire burnt the plant to the ground. ?We found other facilities immediately while our ownership committed to rebuilding,? remembers Leslie. ?By September that year, our production was running again with new Toyoda machines.?

?The new grinders are so consistent that we were assured our people could continue to make what we already made while we were able to pursue the addition of new functions in other areas, such as grinding profiles or adding a B- and C-axis,? adds Keen. ?New technology and additional functions are important, but our most important asset is our people. They?re the only thing that continues to appreciate.?

?We?ve been grinding carbide on every drill we manufacture since day one,? remarks Leslie. ?These aren?t the first tough times we?ve gone through. With our people and with user-friendly, reliable production equipment, we?ll be stronger than ever on the other side.?

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Toyoda Machinery, Automotive Products Division, 51300 W. Pontiac Trail, Wixom, MI 48393, 248-624-5755, www.toyodausa.com .