The manufacturing industry is starting to rebound in Michigan, and Fab Masters Company is enjoying its portion of success. Congressional Representative Fred Upton was pleased to hear that business was improving even on the smaller scale that Fab Masters occupies.
On Tuesday, March 13, Upton visited Fab Masters Company. President Ron Troxell led a tour of the facility. Upton was shown several new large-volume projects that have been on the drawing board for almost a year and will go into production soon. One of the projects is a high-efficiency, low-maintenance indoor safety exit sign that uses LED lighting. Fab Masters has seen a surge in business that involves new technologies such as the use of LED lighting, and additional volume in the production of heat sinks. The LED lights create more heat than the old-style incandescent bulbs; this in turn, creates the need for more sophisticated heat sinks to reduce temperature and extend the life of the lights.
Troxell also expressed the fact that overseas business was returning. He said, “the cost of logistics and poor quality have not compensated for the low cost of labor, and in some cases has even increased fabrication cost due to the need of having low-quality parts re-fabricated.” He went on to say; FMC regained such a customer, “We are in the process of fixing thousands of parts that were out of specification when they arrived from an
overseas facility.” Troxell added, “Last week, we had representatives here from a US company that was using an overseas supplier who infringed on their patent rights. Fab Masters has helped them redesign their complete project, and it will be ready to ship in July.”
The visit concluded with Upton discussing legislation waiting to be passed that will help small businesses more easily obtain operating funds, and fuel the country to a faster economic comeback.