American Metal Coatings Tops Out at No. 1 Electroplating Operation

The way Konstantine Dotsikas has been cutting checks over the last few years as he built his new metal finishing facility, he was definitely in need of finally being on the receiving end of something.

Try the distinction of his American Metal Coatings being ranked the No. 1 finishing operation in North America based on the Products Finishing Top Shops Benchmarking Survey.

The Mentor, Ohio, shop relocated its headquarters and most of its production in 2017 from the east side of Cleveland to a sprawling 120,000-square-foot facility that replaced an operation less than half that size.

“It took me four years of planning and building, but we built this thing from scratch, and everything is brand new,” says Dotsikas, who goes by “Dino” with his friends and colleagues. “This was the hardest ordeal of my life, and more challenging than I ever imagined it would be. We hit so many roadblocks to get here, but looking back it was well worth the effort.”

Average order lead time is down to just 3.7 days, and his on-time delivery and first-pass quality approval—two major goalposts for delivering superior satisfaction to the customer—were both over 99 percent, while delivering more than 1 billion parts in 2018.

Dotsikas says that he decided to build a new facility in Mentor because the area they were in wasn’t safe for his employees or customers. With his new facility, things are new and automated, which makes an even better impression on customers.

“It makes it much easier to get the work now,” he says. “It’s a great facility and we’ve taken metal finishing technology to a place that few in the world have considered, or are capable of. And we have a great team of people running the operations.”

The move was also precipitated by aging equipment and facilities. When Dotsikas started adding up the cost to upgrade the lines and building, it made financial sense to consider starting from scratch and moving farther east, outside of Cleveland.

“We couldn’t be down for a year while we moved, so we put in a turn-key operation that allowed us to keep working while we got the new place ready,” Dotsikas says. “At the old place, we were working around the clock, seven days a week and still couldn’t keep up with the work. Now, we can do all of it within five days without any overtime because we’re that much more efficient.”

American Metal Coatings specializes in zinc, zinc alloy plating, phosphating and cleaning. They are one of the few metal finishing shops that offers both rack and barrel bulk plating. They expect a modest 5 percent growth in 2019 in the appliance, automotive, fastener, military and commercial building sectors.

Having made the move to a new facility and watching it pay off, Dotsikas says he is glad it’s over because of the stress, challenges and costs.

“I would never do this ever again,” he says. “I did it once, and I made sure we did it right.”

Dotsikas says that he attributes his success to his father, Vasilios, who taught him the ins and outs of metal finishing from when he was a kid, the support of his wife and children, but most of all, to his Orthodox Christian faith.