Top Shop’s Journey to Building a Unique Brand

In a competitive plating market, there are benefits to shops that present themselves as notable, especially when customers have other platers in proximity with which to take their business. Therefore, reputation and brand recognition are critical. Miller Plating in Medina, Ohio, is dedicated to building its brand since it opened in December 2019 in a plating-rich geographic area. But unlike a manufacturer that is starting up in a new location, this shop is taking over the location of a former plating company, Medina Plating. The situation presents management with not only challenges but, more important, opportunities.    

Some inherited equipment problems and wastewater treatment issues that the previous company left behind were only a couple obstacles Adam Anderson, president of Miller Plating, faced. Because he began the business right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he was also confronted with the shutdown while attempting to contact the city for permits and other businesses he relied on to help open his shop.  

“We were operating a very small outfit with no sales whatsoever for basically almost a year,” Anderson says. “And, a lot of the equipment we inherited was in rough shape. So, there was strategy that went into just getting things moving.”

And, because of the shutdown, he, and a team of three former Medina Plating employees who he chose to hire, had ample time to get organized and prepare for a grand opening. “The team needed to build brand recognition for the new company and leave the past behind.”

Establishing a separate brand

As the team set out in hopes of distancing itself from the former brand, ultimately Anderson knew the company needed to reevaluate the services it offered. Therefore, the new team decided to refocus the shop’s efforts from zinc-iron plating to mostly zinc-nickel plating for parts ranging from small fasteners and brackets up to 11 feet long. It also established a specialization in rack plating, which Anderson says is a unique offering compared to some other light-volume plating shops.

“Then, we decided ‘let’s go out and get the quick turnaround time, let’s get the quality, let’s make sure our customers don’t have problems’,” he adds. “Let’s build processes that are going to exceed the corrosion standard, not just meet the corrosion standard.”

By creating a positive reputation, not only has the shop been successful in winning back some of the former company’s business but also has attracted new customers. The company is delivering more quality parts since implementing newer technologies and formulations into its two functioning plating lines. These chemistries provide better adhesion and corrosion protection, Anderson explains.

When the shop acquired the location, it built a new, fully manual plating line that runs 24 hours a day, five days a week and can accommodate a variety of parts. On its second line, which was inherited from the previous plater and is fully automatic, the Miller Plating team changed the line’s process from zinc plating to zinc-nickel plating.

Because Anderson believes there is an increasing market share of zinc-nickel plating, he was ready to invest in the process. Zinc-nickel plating, which he says resists corrosion longer than its counterpart plating processes, is especially effective for parts in the automotive, agriculture and construction vehicle industries that are exposed to outdoor elements/contaminants such as road de-icing salts or fertilizers.  

Wastewater discharge was another concern that Anderson addressed upon opening the new company. Knowing that there was an issue with this process when he moved into the facility, he had to hire a company to drop a sampling port into the outside sampling manhole. “Water used to run through a pipe all the way to discharge,” he explains. “Now, it runs into a crock that we can put a sampler in to check the water.” This investment was worthwhile, especially to prove that the new shop was dedicated to making necessary improvements, he adds.

Moving toward Top Shop status

After removing the waste left behind from its predecessor, the original team could finally move forward with its own, unique vision without the busy work that was initially weighing down the shop.

To start, the men contemplated the intended workflow and restructured the facility’s shelving accordingly. By the end of 2020, Anderson had quickly hired essential employees including a maintenance specialist and plant manager. Today, there are about 31 Miller Plating employees striving to satisfy the shop’s 50 or so diverse customers.

Behind every solid business is an efficient ERP system, and the Miller Plating team is proud of its ERP system that it designed from start to finish. Anderson says this was a substantial benefit of opening a new shop. Not only could he structure the software to his liking, but there was no data to transfer, like there is for an established shop.

“We chose a system that was cloud based; we can be sitting at home and look at the same data that I’m looking at here,” he says. “And it’s valuable to our partners to be able to see their data as well.” This system has played a large role in building the shop’s reputation as well as building customer relationships.

Timely and personal communication with customers is another characteristic of the shop that Anderson has prioritized. “We’ve been praised for how powerful our communication is and that it is easy working with our team,” he explains. “If customers reach out to us, it doesn’t take us hours to respond.”

Fast turnaround time for jobs is also important to Miller Plating. Anderson believes this is one reason the business has earned Products Finishing’s Top Shops status along with growth acceleration. Unlike long-time, well-established platers, he says his shop always has the capacity to take on new business, so it is continually growing. It runs three shifts and has two lab technicians who cover 13 hours out of a workday.

Benchmarking benefits

Like many finishing shops that participate in the Top Shops benchmarking survey, Miller Plating finds many advantages in doing so. Anderson says the survey was instrumental in comparing his shop to similar shops by identifying areas where it does well but also the areas which need improvement.

For example, he says his company’s quoting times were behind other shops surveyed. As a result, he realized the need to free up a larger block of time

daily to focus only on quoting. However, he was pleased to see that the company ranked high in turnaround and sales. Also, the survey has proven that the shop has benefited from being a niche within the plating industry because business remains stable, Anderson says.

“When there were problems with the availability of salts needed for more common plating processes, Miller Plating did not have the same supply shortages,” he explains.

Looking ahead

In 2023, the company focused on a preventive maintenance program to prepare for the eventual operation of both of its working lines running 24/5. Anderson says this year, he is concentrating on doing just that: filling the capacity of both lines. Then in 2025, the third plating line, which needs repair, will be the focus. 

Also on the horizon is expansion via acquisition. The private equity group that owns Miller Plating is looking to grow to different locations as well, which could mean moving outside of the county or state. “We want to be within a five-to-six-hour drive for customers, which opens up quite a bit of opportunity,” Anderson says. “I can see within three to five years we will have another facility.” Although he doesn’t know what Miller Plating’s offerings might look like in a new location, the company will make an educated decision based on customer needs and what makes the most business sense.

While Anderson and the Miller Plating team understand the challenges of successfully executing on their vision, they are optimistic about the future and are excited to maintain their status as a Top Shop.