An Interview with Bob Greider of Greider Precision
When it comes to building high tech components and equipment, precision manufacturing matters, and if anyone can stand by that claim it is Bob Greider of Greider Precision. For the past 40 years he and his wife Virginia have manufactured specialized components for the defense industry while operating from this core belief. They don’t have a website, they don’t advertise, and they don’t need to. Their reputation for quality and integrity precedes them, and over the past four decades they have developed a well-respected name for themselves among the top tier players within the defense industry.
Why Precision Manufacturing
Said Bob in a recent interview, “Precision manufacturing matters, especially to your customers. They want the best parts on their loading dock on time and they want to know that they work. They don’t care if you had a bad weekend. We deliver parts to the largest names in the defense industry and for the last 10 years have not had a single non-conforming shipment or rejected part. That’s pretty unusual. To me, precision means delivering a consistent product on schedule, with zero defects, on an ongoing basis. It is this ability to deliver a consistent product over time with no defects that is hard to do.” At Greider Precision, that level of consistent quality is driven by having process, materials and clearly defined procedures in place that allow for a consistent flow of products. “If the process is consistent, you can make incremental changes over time, but if it’s not, you can never achieve a high level of consistency in the final product. In manufacturing you will always have variations, but it’s how you manage those variations that matters. For the products we manufacture, we’re talking about variations of plus or minus 1?1000 of an inch on hundreds of thousands of pieces, year after year.”
Filling a Niche
Bob started making components for the defense industry because he could not buy parts on the commercial market that met his specific requirements for quality and consistency. “Companies over the years tried our parts, liked them and continue to buy them to this day. They discovered that we can produce a part of equal or superior quality to what they can do in-house, but at a lower cost. As a result, we have become a tier-1 supplier to some of the largest distributors in the country.” When it comes to marketing his business, Bob believes that by being the best in the industry, people will find him. “It’s funny that you have to go out and tell people that you have a product. If you’re the best on the block, they come to you and people know it. We are currently booked through the Spring of 2019 on open deliveries, and that isn’t a ‘gee whiz’ thing. It’s intentional. If you listen to your customers, they will tell you the products that they need to be successful and how they need to work. This does a lot of the design work for you. Your customer's comments and suggestions are valuable, and form the basis for the decisions that you have to make in regards to design and production."
The Importance of a Premium Coolant for Manufacturing with Precision
Coolant is an important part of most manufacturing processes, and at Greider Precision, Bob uses Chemetall Tech Cool® 35052 - a Boeing-approved premium grade, heavy-duty, microemulsion metalworking fluid designed to machine and grind difficult-to-machine materials. “Using the right coolant is necessary because it guarantees you cutting performance and dimensional tolerances. If you have poor quality coolant, the accuracy with which your machines can produce parts is degraded. Keeping your coolant operating at its optimal level maximizes your cutting tool life, and again, it’s all about making sure that your processes are consistent.” Tech Cool® 35052 is a popular, water-soluble coolant that stands up to sump fungus and bacterial issues. Using it allows Bob and Virginia to maintain the high level of precision that is their namesake. With a strong commitment to delivering quality and integrity for over 40 years, Greider Precision continues to manufacture components for the largest names in the defense industry.
Contact an SCL Consultant Today
In a wide range of industrial sectors, SCL is committed to being the number one logistics and solutions provider for the products that protect and optimize the machines that keep our country moving. We pride ourselves on remaining at the forefront of industry trends and technological innovations, and as the market continues to evolve, we are committed to providing extensive product and industry knowledge and total performance satisfaction for our customers. For information on how we can assist your fleet in choosing the optimal products at a competitive price, contact an SCL consultant today.