Dick takes up the story. “The year before I left HP, I got to know the owners of a company called C&K Precision, a precision machining job shop that made components for electronic and medical equipment. One day, the owner told me he wanted to sell the company and asked if I would be interested in buying it.”
The Hunts pooled their resources with another couple (Analisa’s sister and her husband, since bought out), got a Small Business Administration loan and, in 1993, purchased the precision machining firm with a built-in client base in their former employer. “HP was more than 50 percent of our revenue,” Dick says. “A lot of the products we were building were to support its Lightwave division.”
Then HP scaled down, relocating many of its local operations. And then there was 9/11. Business suffered, but the Hunts held on for 18 months before making a decision to close their doors.
Still, customers kept calling, asking for their expertise. “In 2003, we formed Datum Technologies as a contract manufacturer for our previous customers. In 2004, as the manufacturing economy rebounded, we got back into precision machining and manufacturing,” Dick explains.
The firm makes small, precision components for the semiconductor industry, medical device manufacturers, testing and measurement devices and more. Basically, they make small, specialized components of larger machines and assemblies.
Datum has a great reputation for quality. “We hand measure and inspect every part we make,” says Dick, showing off a workbench were Datum Technologies employees are measuring, inspecting and hand-packing parts that have just come out of a large CNC (computer numerical controlled) machine that’s transforming bars of alloy/metals into precision parts that will control the flow of fluids in a complex valve.
Business is tracking the economy. Analisa says 2007 was their best year ever, 2008 and 2009 were off, but “In 2010, we see business turning back up again. Our major customers are writing blanket purchase orders again.”
And, they don’t have all their eggs in one basket. According to Analisa: “Our customer base isn’t as broad as we’d like yet, but it’s pretty balanced right now.”
Does being a woman have an impact on Analisa’s role in the company? By way of an answer, Dick and Analisa point to a metal lathe sitting off to one side of the manufacturing area and tell a story about a client who had an emergency order for 5,000 special screws. Analisa sat in front of that lathe day and night, machining the screws herself, to help fulfill the order.
But, she isn’t in the shop that often. “I’m the paper pusher, [Dick] is the technical person.” Dick adds: “She’s the strategic thinker. She keeps us healthy.”
Clear Focus Imaging, Inc.
Santa Rosa
www.clearfocus.com
When banks, software companies and pro sports teams want to wrap a glass building or cover a window or glass door with a logo, image or advertisement, it can create a problem—the building’s tenants can’t see out. A Santa Rosa-based manufacturer has solved that problem for clients with a perforated window film that can be printed on one side with a full-color graphic but that’s see-through from the other side.
Clear Focus Imaging is run by its president, Debbie Ross, who co-founded the company in 1994 with Greg Ross. “He invented the process,” Debbie says, “and originally, the company outsourced its manufacturing. In 1997, we purchased equipment to bring all manufacturing in-house here in Santa Rosa.” (The company also has offices in France and Germany.) Ross has been the head of the firm since its inception; the company has silent partners who invested at the beginning but are not involved in the day-to-day operations.
Clear Focus has a specific mission, to manufacture and supply One Way Vision window graphics film to the printing industry and to maximize its use. “Our products can be applied to virtually any glass surface. From the outside you see the image, logo or ad. From the inside, visibility is retained.”
Today, the product is used on skyscrapers, retail stores, restaurants, buses, trains, vans—anything that has glass that can be safely covered. According to Ross, many of the products are event-driven, and a look at the Clear Focus portfolio includes advertising for the Super Bowl and for major movie and product launches.
“We convert the raw material using a proprietary process and sell it primarily through regional and national distributors or through private-label wholesalers,” Ross says. To safeguard its intellectual property, the company doesn’t allow visitors to its production facility.
Despite its unique product line, the firm isn’t immune to the ups and downs of the economy, but management has been able to avoid layoffs. Clear Focus has also responded to its largest area of competition [overseas manufacturing] by researching and sourcing a less-expensive product line that lets it stay competitive while “still offering a value-added product” for customers who respond primarily to price, rather than specifying a higher-quality domestic product.
What’s it like being a woman running a company in a male-dominated industry? “Being a woman hasn’t held me back in the United States, but there are some cultures where we feel it’s more effective to have a male salesperson handle things.” Clear Focus has 22 employees, about half of which are women.
Royce Instruments, Inc.
Napa
www.royceinstruments.com
Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of manufacturing firms in Napa. Of course, most of them are manufacturing something out of grapes. Finding a company that manufactures high-end machinery is a little trickier.
Royce Instruments, Inc. was founded 27 years ago by Diane and Malcolm Cox. “We did what you used to be able to do in 1983. We started a business in a garage,” says Diane. “My husband was responsible for technology and sales, and he’s still our technology guru, while I run the company.”
The company designs and builds precision equipment for the semiconductor industry. It currently has two primary products, bond testers and die sorters. Bond testers, as the name implies, are primarily used in quality control, to test the strength of various assemblies and products. Die sorters can pick up and place fragile or specialized items with a high level of precision and are used to manufacture semiconductors. Royce makes a few basic machines they call “main frames” which can be customized for each customer’s needs.
“Our machines handle tricky situations and materials,” Cox explains. “They’re ideal for research and development, because they have a quick changeover.” Royce Instruments devices can be reconfigured in as quickly as 10 minutes, a crucial feature for a customer that might be testing a variety of different materials and techniques, or making small batches of products.
Royce Instruments isn’t a machine shop. “We don’t cut metal here,” says Cox. “We design and outsource to machine shops, then we assemble. We’re set up to do quick turnaround on custom orders.”
Cox is actively pursuing growth, reasoning that her firm’s skill set will be useful to other industries that need flexible, precise equipment, manufactured locally. “We’re in discovery mode right now,” she says. “I’m not sure where else we’re going to go, but lots of industries might need computer-controlled precision mechanisms.”
Has she experienced difficulty being a woman in her industry? “In the United States, I haven’t had any issues at all. But in other countries, it’s something to be aware of. China is much more equal than many people here realize. Japan is still fairly male-dominated, but when I go there with my distributors, I’m treated exceptionally well because I’m representing an American company.”
Wright Engineered Plastics
Santa Rosa
www.wepmolding.com
Barbara Roberts and her partner purchased Wright Engineered Plastics in 1996, when she knew very little about injection molding. “I was an investment banker, and my job was to find companies to buy,” says Roberts. “This company was a little too small for the fund I represented, but I wanted to buy it for myself. It was a good company, with good products and good employees.”
The founder of the firm was a former Hewlett-Packard employee who developed a two-shot process to improve injection molding. Since acquiring the company, Roberts has capitalized on the technical expertise of Wright’s molders, now offering a service called “overmolding,” which molds plastic onto metal parts, often adding a plastic handle onto a metal device, such as a clamp used in surgical procedures.
Wright’s clients include the telecom, medical, electronics, business equipment and defense industries, and the company recently worked with JDSU to make the 3D glasses used to view the film “Avatar.”
Roberts has seen clients go to her biggest competitors in Asia, but is now welcoming them back. “There are quality issues overseas, logistics, communication, delivery….”
Wright Engineered Plastics has the distinction of being the first manufacturer to be certified “green” in the nine Bay Area counties. Roberts saw Sonoma County was leading the way on certifying businesses, but also saw that the county was focused on retail establishments and offices. Shops and offices were filling their recycle cans each week, while Wright was recycling 30,000 pounds of plastic and 5,000 pounds of metal a year.
Roberts convened a roundtable of local companies and formulated the first draft of a green manufacturers’ checklist that was eventually accepted by the county. “It was important to me. It took three years to make it happen.”
Has she changed the culture at Wright by being a woman in charge? “I think that women owners, in general, are more approachable by their workforce. We tend to be more interested in non-wage issues, like corporate culture and friendliness.”
She says Wright employees have always had a good relationship with management: “Everyone knows if there’s an issue with their family, they can approach me about it. That’s not just a woman thing, but I think it’s a change here.”
Roberts adds: “I think it’s more unusual to be an American manufacturer nowadays than a woman manufacturer. We have to invest in our own innovation. [American firms] have some of the best ideas in the world, and any government involvement should be in identifying and supporting new products and ideas.”
Roberts has a message for the federal government as it struggles to right a foundering economy: “When the White House has a jobs forum, it just brings in Fortune 500 companies, none of whom are creating jobs. No one asks the advice of us small businesses who are creating jobs.”
