MAZAK ARTICLE

Danny Odom, president of Aero Components (Oklahoma City, OK), is a multi-tasking believer. He obtained his first Mazak Integrex machine from a bankrupt company along with the job it was running, and realized immediately that the former customer had set the feeds and speeds too low. “I knocked 35% off the cycle time right off the top without even trying,” he says.

That was in 2002. Now Odom has 12 Integrexes that are integral to his production operation. In fact, the 25-year-old company had no Mazak machines prior to 1995. Now it runs more than 50. Moreover, he has never sent a single employee away for training, due to the ease of conversational programming with the Mazatrol control and his emphasis on top-notch people that want to learn and grow.

Odom started his company in 1981 with two people, a manual mill, and manual lathe to serve Oklahoma City’s booming aerospace industry. He grew steadily on defense contracts until 1989, when “cancellation letters on nearly everything I had” drove him to the verge of bankruptcy. Fortunately, Aero Components was able to obtain high-tech semiconductor and medical work for some much-needed diversity, and the company resumed growing.

From originally viewing the Integrex as a specialty machine for specialty parts, Odom now sees it as key to his shop’s future, particularly in medical parts. “The medical industry is growing, but designs change frequently, lots aren’t big, material prices are out of hand, and customers continue demanding price reductions,” he says. “The only way you can survive is obtaining productivity through technology.”

Odom also continuously invests in automation, multi-tasking, and his people. With revenue now at a healthy level, Odom knows through experience that times can change. “In a job shop, you have to be as debt-free and lean as possible. Without multi-tasking and Palletechs, you won’t be around in 10 years - not on this level.”