Parlec Inc. Finds Success In ‘One Big Marketplace’
In the manufacturing world, where some companies choose to outsource to adapt to the changing market, New York based Parlec Inc. instead goes where the competition is. “Recently, a lot of companies are losing business to China,” President Doug Woods says. “But we look at the whole world as one big marketplace – we look at how to be successful worldwide.”
With its manufacturing facility based in the United States, the tooling, workholding, and presetting solutions manufacturer that serves the CNC market also has a facility in Bristol, England, and two years ago expanded its assembly and product service office into Nanjing, China. “Our purpose of going to China was to satisfy their market needs for our products, not to manufacture there and bring the products to the United States.”
Parlec, which was established in 1948, says it is fortunate to be flexible and adaptive to market changes. It proved its adaptability during the early 2000s market downturn. “It was the worst recession in the machine tool industry in decades,” Woods recalls.
“It was when more imports were coming in, consolidations were happening, bankruptcies, and 9/11 happened. All the setbacks combined created the [biggest] downturn since [the company started].
“But because we have a diversified product line, we were able to really adapt to try and provide products to customers during that difficult time. We stayed strong and gout ourselves in the right position, while others were downsizing.”
Parlec carries six product lines – toolholders, boring tools, driven and static tooling, tapping, presetters and workholding – and more than 8,000 individual products typically used by OEM machine tool builders and distributed to automotive, aerospace, medical, tool-and-die and heavy equipment industries.
Its diverse product lines set the company apart. Woods states, “We really design and manufacture all product lines, while some of our competitors only have one or two product lines and they buy the rest,” he explains. “We are extremely qualified to support and service each of the product lines for our customers.”
Parlec recently introduced its Parsetter TMM Series 1500 Tool Presetter, “a bench-top machine that makes presetting, measuring, and inspecting tools simple and easy,” the company says. The 1500 offers mechanical positioning and repeatability of one micron or better.
“It combines age ductile iron with symmetry design methodology to create one of the most thermally stable, consistently accurate presetters available today.”
“The Series 1500 measuring envelope can be configured to handle tools up to a 420 mm maximum diameter and 600 mm maximum length. Ergonomic, one-hand positioning allows the tool edge to come quickly into view, while the dynamic crosshairs automatically find and track the cutting edge. Flexible configuration of axial orientation and measurement value sallow the Series 1500 system to be used for both turning and milling applications on one vertical presetter platform.”
The Series 1500 was introduced in the middle of the year at the International Manufacturing Technology Show held in Chicago, and offers better accuracy and higher level of intuitive software at a lower price, Woods notes.
Other features include a touch-screen operator interface, a fine adjust and pneumatic breaking system, a high resolution LED for tool surface inspection, centering optics for adjustment of turning tools, tool data management, communications, and an inventory of spindle, length adjustment and tool adapter options.
Staying Customer-Focused
Woods says Parlec was investing in lean manufacturing even before the lean concept became popular. “We’ve been looking into it for more than 10 years,” he states. “We’ve been regularly taking a look at what we can do in our facility to maximize our resources. We’ve been trying to do all the fundamentals of lean manufacturing for quite some time.”
Parlec says it offers product quality that makes its machine tools effective production tools. “We continue to reduce handling of a part,” Woods explains. “We also collect information on products from our distributors so our engineers understand what customers need.”
Aside from product quality, Woods says he is proud of Parlec’s customer service. “We’re very customer-centric,” he stresses. “Our consistency of growth and acceptance of products are shown by our volume growth and it comes from our hard working employees. When you have a lot of products and transactions, it’s easy to deviate from [the proper customer service], but we’re very attentive.
Organic Growth
Woods sees the company growing in the United States and in its two international markets, and says he hopes to venture further into Mexico, Central Europe, and India. Parlec is always open to looking into acquisitions to obtain growth,” he continues. “But if we see a niche or a unique product, we’ll do it. [Acquisition] is not a key charter for us to accomplish sales goals because I believe organically we can grow.
“W can grow just by continuing to follow the growth of the machine tool market in [today’s] growing economy in the markets we are not currently serving.”
Woods previously served as the CEO of Liberty Precision Industries, where he was responsible for growing the company from a $7 million tool-and-die firm to a top $40 million design and manufacturer of flexible machining systems. He is chairman of the Association for Manufacturing Technology and is active in the National Tooling and Machining Association.
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Archer Communications, Inc.
(585) 461-1570
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Jason Grady
Parlec, Inc.
(585) 425-4400
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