The lack of raw material has been hurting all industry and especially the CNC machining industry. Whether it’s a CNC Milling machine or a CNC lathe turning center or a CNC Rotary transfer, whatever can produce metal parts is not able to produce parts due to the sheer lack of raw materials.

This is an unprecedented time in the history of our country to where not only is there a lack of metals but also skilled labor. Any and all CNC shops are hurting due to this lack of material and people. Machines are sitting idle waiting on raw material. It just doesn’t seem as though the mills can make the metal fast enough.

The reason for these shortages all goes back to COVID and the shutdown of 2020. That small interruption caused an immediate drop in supply because mills, if they ran, produced at a reduced capacity. This is now causing monumental change in production, employee attendance and now prices. As this backup continues and labor is more scarce, labor costs are actually increasing. If it costs employers more to staff a machine then the cost of that widget will increase. If that widget goes into a panel of a vehicle then that panel will cost more and if the panel cost more then the vehicle will cost more. Now, consider this increase for more than just that one widget and instead every component on that vehicle. This cost is significantly different as compared to 1 year ago. Sure, our labor force is higher paid but everything also now costs more as well so are we really better off than before? This is yet to be determined.

There is machining and then there is precision CNC machining. Gent Machine is an ISO 9001:2015 –
 ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9001-2015 and IAFT 16949:2016 certified producer of screw machine parts. Precision
parts is what we do. The company has experienced employees handle all facets of precision machining
in our Acme, Davenport, and Citizen CNC departments from prints to machine set-up to production and
to quality. All the steps from idea to finished product take patience, persistence, and skill, to urge screw
machines, mills, and our Citizen CNC machines to run smoothly and create parts that meet prints and
quality specifications. With decades of experience, Gent Machine is laser focused on what distinguishes
the company from its competitors in the machining industry.

1. Machining with White Glove Service
While an oxymoron with the thoughts of grease of a machine shop, this attribute sets Gent
Machine apart. Fast and responsive communication with real people, from owners to the office
staff, ensure customer information is not only heard timely, but acted upon quickly and
efficiently. As suppliers to the automotive and aerospace industries, as well as the United States
military, clear communication is essential and responsiveness is key.

2. Clean Factory
When Gent Machine made the decision to relocate to its new location, not one detail was
spared. Nothing except an organized, state of the art facility is acceptable to serve the needs of
Gent’s customers and employees. Rows of Davenport and Acme machines inhabit one third of
the shop, while Swiss CNC and Hydromats take up another third of the shop. The floor scrubber
is in almost constant use, ensuring floors are clean and safe to walk upon as machines hum.
Customers and visitors arrive expecting to see grease and filth. Instead, visitors walk into a
bright and open work area. All employees are expected to clean their areas before leaving for
the day. Machinists are expected to mop their areas, and a clean shop is the responsibility of all
employees.

3. Wealth of Machining Experience
The vision of the old guy back in the tool room with the ability to create any part for absolutely
any need, blindfolded, is not far from the truth. Gent is lucky to have several seasoned
employees. We have a competitive advantage having the expertise and problem-solving skills of
experienced Davenport, Acme, and CNC employees on our roster alongside our younger
employees. We continue to attract highly skilled individuals to meet the requirements of our
customers’ projects. Gent has machinists with high levels of experience and who love getting
their hands dirty – literally. We are fortunate that our employees’ talents and experience further
our mission to produce high volume precision parts using our innovation and teamwork for
partners who demand superior quality, machining expertise, and on time delivery. Machining is
an industry where experience is highly prized and rewarded.
Gent is proud of its family tradition of precision excellence and focuses on its competitive
differentiators. A state of the art facility with knowledgeable and experienced employees, and a

commitment to keep clear lines of communication open within all facets of customers’
experience will continue to drive success for decades to come.

In December, the leadership team of Gent Machine, a CNC Machine shop, embarked on adopting a system of communication called EOS – the Entrepreneurial Operating System. This system allows the team to set time aside to work “on” the business vs the daily activities of working “in” the business. 

Q. What is EOS?
A. EOS is a set of concepts and processes that help leaders communicate and work together to resolve issues. EOS focuses on six key components that are inherent in any business – Vision, Data, Process, Traction, People, and Issues. These components are the spokes of a wheel with our business in the center. There is nothing fancy about EOS. The largest value to EOS is keeping leadership focused on the priorities it sets.

Q. Why did Gent pick EOS?
A. Gent has plans for growth and improving many aspects of what we do every day – especially efficiencies. Managers solving problems walking by each other in the hall is not effective communication. Emails leave room for interpretation. EOS provides a very structured, direct, and no-nonsense approach of working through goals and issues that require attention and collaboration. The relationship Gent has with Cleveland’s MAGNET (The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network) allows us to utilize experts to guide us through this process.

Q. How does EOS change the way leadership communicates?
A. Adam, Rich, Lisa (Operations), and Dawn (Quality), as well as Production meet weekly for an uninterrupted hour and a half to review data, evaluate progress on company-wide and individual goals (called Rocks), review major happenings, and focus on and resolve issues. We spend the majority of each meeting resolving issues that will remove frustrations and move the company forward. We wrap up meetings by assigning to dos that may result in tasks or outside meetings with employees and/or vendors.
The team also meets off site quarterly to review progress and set goals for the next quarter. Yearly goals are set at the end of Q4 in an off-site meeting as well.

Q. How does EOS affect me as an employee? What is right person right seat?
A. A key component of EOS is right person right seat. This is essentially looking at every employee in the company and saying are they the right person doing the right job? Do they represent our core values? Are they in the right role for them and for Gent?
At the beginning of working on EOS, this component was a major focus of the leadership team. We relied heavily on our facilitator to guide us through right person right seat exercises. We started by reaffirming our core values, mission statement, and vision statement. We evaluated every employee and how they are perceived to demonstrate our core values and whether or not they are in the right role at Gent. Our goals cannot be reached without a great team of people doing what they do best.

Q. What EXACTLY do you talk about during meetings?
A. Whatever is an issue/topic that helps the company to run efficiently. Topics run the gamut from a key employee leaving in which we need to figure out who will take over their responsibilities to parts out of spec and which employees need to be part of that discussion in a separate meeting. Perhaps an employee is struggling with a skill and requires additional training, or we are considering purchasing a new piece of equipment. Every week is different.

Q. Is EOS helping the leadership team communicate?
A. Yes! EOS consistently brings us back to the quarterly goals we set to help us meet our annual goals. No matter how busy a week may be, we all know we have 1 ½ hours a week to listen and be heard by other members of the team.

The Davenport multi spindle screw machine is the fastest screw machine on the market. Gent machine has 38 Davenport machines on the production floor with another four off-line. In the last month we set up a part for a customer to make Bases for a 9mm round (ammunition). The material is 7075 aluminum, and we are making a part every 1.4 seconds. By the end of May we expect to have four machines running this part producing about 1 million parts per month.

The tolerances on this base part are tight for a screw machine. The ID tolerance is .001”. Typically, this would be too tight but since this is aluminum and the diameter is small, we have been able to hold the .001” tolerance. It is also possible because this part is running on a recently rebuilt Davenport screw machine.

About three times a year we strip a Davenport screw machine down to the base. Every part is taken off the machine and the core is sent to Meagher Machine in Rochester NY. Meagher Machine bands and bores the machine, and a new head is placed into the machine. From there, the core with the new head is shipped back to Gent Machine. Our experienced rebuilding staff puts each spindle, shaft, slide and bearing back into the machine to ensure the screw machine is brought back to like new. Having rebuilt machines on our production floor ensures we can meet the required tolerances on customers prints.

With the purchase of our first CNC milling machine, a Hwacheon Vesta 660, we expected to be producing parts to make money. However, just having the machine on our floor is opening up new opportunities for us. These opportunities may not always add to sales but more so decrease our costs to suppliers.

Take this cap for example. I know you can’t see the part but it is a cap for a battery case. We make about 15,000 caps per month for a customer. Each part needs to be anodized, but not completely. The part must only have the top or “cap” side of the part is anodized. The rest must remain bright. In order to do this, the bottom half of the part must be covered during the anodizing process.

To cover the thread portion of the part, the anodizer currently screws in hundreds of parts into a fixture. The fixture blocks the bottom half of the part from being anodized. They dip the fixture in to the anodizing bath and  then unscrew the parts from the fixture and send to back to us. Naturally, the labor to screw in and unscrew each part is costly to the anodizer so we are billed for this time. Now that we have the CNC Milling machine we are able to produce our own fixture. Once this is done we will be able to screw in the parts to our fixture, send it the anodizer, who will just dip the fixture and then send back to us. We are removing their labor cost which will create a sizeable savings in the end.