William Hickey - Metal Center News

MCN Service Center Executive of the YearWith its sophisticated slittingequipment, includingthis line at its Chicagoheadquarters, Lapham- facility in St. Louis and a thirdHickey can offer one ofin Neenah, Wis. Since then,the widest gauge rangesLapham-Hickey has grown toin the industry, from0.001 to 0.312 inch, with seven locations with over 500superior edge registry and employees and more than $300tight slit width tolerances. million in annual revenue.(Photo courtesy Lapham- While substantial, the growthHickey Steel)was not done simply to get larger.Each new facility, none ofwhich is identical in products and services, was the result ofa careful examination of each market and what it offered tothe company and its customers.A prime example is the Wisconsin operation, which hadrelocated from its original facility in Neenah to nearby Oshkosh.The Oshkosh facility is a dramatically different operationthan Chicago’s, which specializes in a number of differentcoil processing functions. The Wisconsin branch focuseson long products and its more recently opened fabricationoperation. The fab shop was launched when one of the facility’slarger customers informed Lapham-Hickey that it was nolonger going to buy steel, but fabricated parts. So, Lapham-Hickey did what was necessary to keep the valued customer.“We see more and more customers who want to buycomponents that are part of an assembly. They don’t wantto invest money in capital equipment they’re going to runmaybe one shift a day,” he says. “So we put in a laser, we putin a press brake.”The transformation from traditional service center to firststepmanufacturer wasn’t embraced by all, as some customerswere concerned their supplier was now competing withthem. “I just said I was following my customer,” he explains.That customer-driven mindset and adaptability havebeen hallmarks of Lapham-Hickey Steel and key contributorsto the company’s success. They are evident in examplesboth large and small.At the Chicago facility, the company specializes in slitting,with a broad range of widths. That includes small slitterscapable of shaving strips into pieces no wider than afingernail. This type of processing is not in high demand,nor high supply, resulting in highly specialized orders fromall over the country. But such capabilities also create theirown issues.Standard packaging options aren’t appropriate for someof these products, many of which are shipped through UPS.Lapham-Hickey’s solution: devote a small section of the facilityto an internal lumber yard, manned by a carpenter whospends each day making customized skids and boxes for theuncommon orders, while the company purchases the standardsizes elsewhere.Likewise, Lapham-Hickey uses a mix of companyownedvehicles and common carriers to handle the largerorders. The fleet includes several closed vans for customers32 ❘ Metal Center News — December 2012 www.metalcenternews.com