Like many southeastern Michigan suppliers, as the fortunes of the Detroit Big Three went south, PTM Corporation of Ira Township found its own future threatened.
Faced with a dwindling automotive client base and increased competition from overseas, the firm, which began as a prototype-only firm called Qasar run out of a garage in the 1970s, was left fighting for its existence. As a result of a few opportunistic expansions, diversification and a give-back that extended from the shop floor to the front office, work is humming along at PTM's campus on Bethuy Road.
"We have a good diversity of customers," said Tom Jubb, PTM's corporate chief financial officer while sitting around a table with other company managers. "No single customer represents more than 10 percent of our business. We have had the opportunity to take over businesses of competitors who have failed."
PTM, a full-service metal stamping supplier with on-site CAD and tooling facilities, has for decades been known for designing high quality, cost-effective clips, fasteners, clamps and brackets.
"We pay attention to details," Jubb said. "If it makes sense, we proceed."
The buildings at the firm's campus, located at the corner of Bethuy and Arnold roads, are a testament to the survivor mentality adopted by its employees. Like many manufacturing facilities in the region, the signs of the recession are evident in empty portions of buildings that once were work stations. They also house presses and other machines, in many cases bought for a fraction of their original cost, which have allowed the firm to continue its work and even expand into other areas.
"Sometimes you have to take risks," said Donna Russell-Kuhr, vice-president and daughter of PTM founder Charles Russell. "We've been willing to take educated risks."
Most recently PTM announced it was purchasing a prototype firm based in Fraser. While the shop will be closed and moved to Ira Township, Russell-Kuhr said a couple dozen employees who would have otherwise been out of a job will have a place to work once the acquisition is complete.
This comes not long after PTM employees, including senior management, took a 20 percent pay cut. An employee base that once exceeded 150 has been pared down by one-third. So how can the firm afford to expand given these circumstances? According to Russell-Kuhr, growing and expanding its operation is the key to sustainment.
"It's been essential to us," she said. "We take a risk and a gamble and it opens doors that we'd never been in before."
Growing the business
For that reason, a firm that traditionally dealt in the prototype business is today a place where a contractor can purchase a miter saw or a tool table.
In the summer of 2009, seeing the possibilities that existed in defense, the company hired a military defense specialist. Today it's a small part of PTM's business, but one that could grow into a much larger component in the coming years.
"We have this history of buying companies that are not doing well, nursing them back to health and bringing them to our St. Clair County campus," Russell-Kuhr said.
A timeline of the company's growth gives credence to that statement. The Fraser firm, Prototype Tooling and Manufacturing, is the latest acquisition. In the past 20 years, PTM also bought up Modified Technologies of Romeo and HTC Products of Royal Oak. Modified Technologies, with 15 employees, was well known in the industry for its quality at the time of the purchase. HTC, meanwhile, was weeks away from public auction when Charles Russell purchased its assets and moved it.
Today, the different divisions employ 151 on a campus that started out as a modest, rented building in 1977 before moving into a more permanent, 13,500-square-foot home with its first "game changer," an electrical discharge machine, in 1989.
Additions have come at least four times since 1989, with nearly 200,000 feet of prototype, design, manufacturing and warehouse space in place today. Maintaining all of this, growing for the future and providing the quality customers demand, with price points that are stretched to the limit by competition from overseas manufacturers, is a challenge.
"Our customers are eyeing everything," Russell-Kuhr said. "They've become a different consumer."
Plant manager Michael Palazzolo notes meeting the quality standard is not an issue for PTM. The pricing competition, on the other hand, is an area where overseas firms that have much cheaper labor costs can make it tough to close a deal. However, PTM has been able to fight back with competitive pricing and intangibles others cannot match.
"We try to come close to pricing then surpass with location and customer service," Jubb added. "It's about knowing what we want to do and doing it well."
Russell-Kuhr points out that the changing market has made the company more competitive. A job that used to take 16 weeks to turn around is done in eight weeks today.
Much of that efficiency has been the outgrowth of implementing superior technology.
"In my world, innovation is everything," said Jimmy Boelstler, manager of Modified Technologies, during a tour of the plant. He points to a machine where a St. Clair County Community College instructor works with an SC4 student. Finding skilled labor is one of the key challenges for a company that still relies on its manufacture of prototypes for much of its operation.
"I don't know of a more efficient tool shop in America," he said, proudly stating that the firm regularly beats not only the quality of Chinese competitors but also turnaround and costs quotes. "The key to being able to compete is by diluting labor costs through technology."
'Huge team effort'
Much of the entrepreneurial spirit that exists today goes back to the die cast by Charles Russell more than three decades ago, his daughter says.
Other employees echo those sentiments, stating many of the innovations developed at the Ira Township facility came about as a result of the founder's desire to keep moving.
"A lot of tool and die shops did not invest in technology and, because of that, they are no longer here," Boelsler said. "The Russells did and that's why we're still here today."
While technology has been important, the private firm's management team gives the credit to the people on the shop floor.
"There's a huge team effort going on here. People have pulled together in tough times," said Jubb, who, matter-of-factly, proclaims that PTM is once again profitable.
As for the future, Jubb shrugs off the notion that America is becoming a nation of consumers and is losing its manufacturing heritage.
"I don't buy it. If we become a country of strictly consumers we will have given up our strength, we'll give up our independence. Look at our story. We went through a lot of hardship. When it was bad, we could have given up. Instead, management took a 20 percent (pay) cut and we reduced the workforce. We've returned, not to previous levels, but we have returned."
At the same time, he acknowledges the cuts of recent years are most likely permanent.
"It's not apples to apples measure," he said when asked if business increases will mean the creation of jobs, pointing out that operating efficiencies created by technology and streamlining are a good thing. "Some of those jobs are not back and will not be coming back."
Those that remain, he added, enjoy the work they do.
"I think if you talk to most people around here they would say they are happy being a part of this family," he said. "We have good people here."
Palazollo adds that even after pay cuts were put in place, an employee satisfaction survey conducted annually revealed an increased morale score.
"We take what they (employees) say seriously. Where we can do something and make a change our employees suggest, we modify it. They're the ones that know best."
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