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Five-time Top Shop honoree Surface Technology Inc. rises to the top of the Electroplating & Anodizing Benchmarking Survey.
Each year, Products Finishing conducts its Top Shops Benchmarking Survey, a program designed to aid finishing shops in measuring their key operating metrics against others in the industry. Originally launched in 2015, Top Shops helps finishers identify optimal shop floor practices and improve operations and business procedures.
“The PF Top Shops Benchmarking Survey is celebrating its 7th year of providing industrial finishers with a deep dive on how their shop is performing along with comparing their data against their peers,” says Products Finishing publisher Todd Luciano.
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You may have noticed a few changes in the program this year, including a change in the timing of the survey. Since the program’s inception, Gardner Intelligence, the market research and data analysis division of Gardner Business Media, has sought to constantly improve Top Shops.
“Top Shops was designed primarily for the benefit of individual shops who are sent custom benchmarking reports. For benchmarking to remain relevant and useful, however, the Gardner Intelligence team regularly evolves Top Shops program elements,” explains Jan Schafer, director of market research at Gardner Intelligence. “This year, for example, we enabled more and different shops to participate in Products Finishing’s Top Shops by allowing them to complete the survey according to their schedule and data availability rather than limiting submissions to a certain few weeks.”
According to Schafer, another important enhancement made this year is a restructuring of Top Shops datasets so several years of data can be combined. “Larger datasets make for more stable benchmarks, and they mean we can look at smaller segments of like shops (e.g. chrome finishers) for tighter comparisons that are reasonably robust,” Schafer says. “Larger datasets also support analyses like drivers analysis which helps shops identify performance metrics that matter most to improvement plans.”
Hundreds of shops participate in Top Shops annually, resulting in a wealth of data and statistics that prove invaluable for assessing areas of improvement, such as finishing technology, performance and practices, business strategy, and human resources. Below you’ll find this year’s entire list of qualifying Top Shops, as well as the #1 ranking top shop in each category.
Electroplating & Anodizing
This year’s #1 Top Shop in the Electroplating & Anodizing category is Surface Technology Inc. (STI) of Ewing, N.J., a company specializing in composite electroless nickel plating systems.
“Our company has a longstanding business model of investing in composite electroless nickel to cultivate this specialized technology within the broader plating world,” says Michael Feldstein, president of STI. “We have done this through decades of research and development and scaling up our capabilities, so we have been able to coat both prototype and routine orders in a wide variety of such composite coatings (EN with Teflon, diamond from sub-micron to grit size particles, silicon carbide, boron nitride, phosphorescent particles, etc). We have been the pioneer in these technologies from patents to prototypes to production. And we have been the world leader by not only doing the processes here in our shop but by making and providing the chemical solutions and know-how to other plating shops around the world (both job and captive shops). Part of our model, especially as a specialized shop in an area like New Jersey, has been to build a network of shops around the U.S. and worldwide to which we can refer jobs for standard EN and coat their orders for composite EN until they have a sufficient volume to add the composite baths to their shop’s portfolio.”
Learn more about STI’s latest innovation here.
Liquid and Powder Coating
Georgia Powder Coating (GPC) is constantly working to improve its operation and has invested in new equipment year after year.
Georgia Powder Coating (Gainesville, Ga.) has qualified as a Top Shop every year since the program and this year placed first in the Liquid and Powder Coating Benchmarking Survey for the second year in a row.
“Without the benchmarking survey we wouldn’t know what the industry is doing at large — until the Top Shops program there was no way of knowing where you stand,” says Dallas Cooley, vice president of GPC.
Cooley goes on to talk about the program as a tool for gaining insight into his company’s place in the industry at large. “We have never viewed the Top Shops program as competition, but more collaboration with our industry companions,” he says. “Receiving the recognition as a Top Shop is humbling because of our awareness of the truly great companies in our industry, they are doing amazing things. I am honored to comment on GPC’s behalf, however, if not for 100 others like Ramon Salinas who cleans our facility with excellence, to Counte Cooley our President, I would not have much to speak about, they are all heroes to me. We are currently in talks with city officials and architects in hopes to double our facility size and capacity, all the while praying for wisdom and trusting in God.”
Electroplating and Anodizing Top Shops Honorees
Ace
David Vaughn, President
Hillside, Ill.
Active Metal Finishing
Allan Phillips, President
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Advanced Metal Finishing Inc.
Dwayne Robinson, President
Roanoke, Va.
Aircraft X-ray Laboratories
Gray Newton, CEO
Huntington Park, Ca.
AM Metal Finishing Inc.
Sloane Hunter, Vice-President
Orlando, Fla.
American Metal Coatings
Konstantine "Dino" Dotsikas, Owner & President
Mentor, Ohio
Avtec Finishing Systems Inc.
Pete Waldo, CEO
New Hope, Minn.
Cadillac Plating Corporation
Nick Salvati, Director of Operations
Warren, Mich.
ChromeTech of Wisconsin, Inc.
Alan Henry, President
Franklin, Wis.
Electroplating & Surface Engineering SA de CV
Francisco Granados, Director
Celaya, GTO, Guanajuato, Mexico
eplating.com.mx
Electro-Spec, Inc.
Jeff Smith, President
Franklin, Ind.
Elite Metal Finishing
Dan Rose, President
Oceanside, Calif.
Global Metal Finishing Inc.
Tamea Franco, Chief Executive Officer
Roanoke, Va.
Great Lakes Metal Finishing Inc.
David Wachter, General Manager
Erie, Pa.
Hohmanplating
Brad Kremer, President
Dayton, Ohio
Houston Plating & Coatings, LLC
William Howard, CEO
South Houston, Texas
IPS
Enrique Mereles Jr., Sales & Marketing Director
San Diego, Calif.
KC Jones Plating Company
Robert Burger, President
Warren, Mich.
Lustrous Metal Coatings Inc.
Mike Paxos, President
Canton, Ohio
Microfinish
William M. Stock, President
Saint Louis, Mo.
microfinishco.om
Miramar Metal Processing Inc.
Marcos Cielak, President
San Diego, Calif.
Pioneer Metal Finishing
Scott Kettler, President and COO
Green Bay, Wis.
Plateco Inc.
Jim Schweich, Chief Executive Officer
Reedsburg, Wis.
Plating for Electronics
Stephen Davino, CEO
Waltham, Mass.
Plating Technology
Matt Raskin, President
Dayton, Ohio
Professional Plating Inc.
Larry Dietz, General Manager
Brillion, Wis.
Recubrimientos Metalicos de Mexico
Carlos, CEO
Mexico City, Mexico City
Roy Metal Finishing Company
Richard Wright, President
Piedmont, S.C.
RoyMetalFinishing.com
Surface Technology Inc.
Michael Feldstein, President and Director of Innovation
Ewing, N.J.
Surtronics Inc.
Angela Stanley, CEO
Raleigh, N.C.
Technical Plating Inc.
Tyler Thomas, Vice President
Brooklyn Park, Minn.
Temecula Quality Plating Inc.
Duke Vo, President
Temecula, Calif.
The Electrolizing Corporation of Ohio
Greg Marn, General Manager
Cleveland, Ohio
U.S. Chrome Corp. of New York
John Carpenter, CEO
Batavia, N.Y.
Valence Surface Technologies - Grove
Tracy Glende, CEO
Grove, Okla.
Valence Surface Technologies - Lynwood
Tracy Glende, CEO
Lynwood, Calif.
Valley Plating
Paul Strehlow, Owner
Green Bay, Wis.
Liquid and Powder Coating Top Shops Honorees
Ace Anodizing & Impregnating Inc.
David Vaughn, President
Hillside, Ill.
All-Color Powder Coating, Inc.
Mark Mortensen, President
Oregon, Wis.
Apex Anodizing, Inc.
Matt Roberts, President
Portland, Ore.
Barrette Outdoor Living
Charles Howison, Vice President
Brooksville, Fla.
BFG Manufacturing Service
Michael Grube, President
Punxsutawney, Pa.
Bristol Powdercoat
Allan Phillips, Business Manager
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
ColorFast Industrial Powder Coating
Jay Ridley, President
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Colourfast Corp.
Joseph Manzoli, President
Concord, Ontario, Canada
Freedom Finishing
Gloria Ender, President
Benton Harbor, Mich.
Georgia Powder Coating
Dallas Cooley, VP Sales
Gainesville, Ga.
JIT Powder Coating Company
Tim Milner, Owner/President
Farmington, Minn.
Mettler Toledo LLC
Herb Aten, general manager
Columbus, Ohio
Micron Metal Finishing
Brad Watt & Scott Router, Co-owners
Bridgeview, IL
micronmetalfinishing.com
Mid West Coatings
Jennifer Friel, CEO
Lancaster , Ohio
Militex Coatings Inc.
Andre Maas, President
London, Ontario, Canada
Performance Powder Coating, LLC
Heath Walter, Owner
Longwood, Fla.
Prime Restoration
Cory McCabe, Owner\President
Memphis, Tenn.
primerestore.com
Profile Finishing Systems
Chris Knuth, CEO
Kaukauna, Wis.
Pro-Kote, LLC
Lanny L Woods, Owner
Jackson, Tenn.
Recubrimientos Metalicos de Mexico
Carlos Cielak, CEO
Mexico City, Mexico
Select Powder Coating
Cole Scego, President
Union, Mo.
Speedy's Industrial
Kelly Jordan, Owner
Ozark, Mo.
Surgical Coatings
James Morri, President
Sedalia, Colo.
Westside Finishing Company, Inc.
Korey Bell, President
Holyoke, Mass.
Winona Powder Coating, Inc.
Jamie Visker, Owner/CEO
Etna Green, Indiana
Houston Plating & Coatings
William Howard, CEO
South Houston, Texas
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