V G Dynamic Machine was started by a German-American master craftsman and his wife in a storage unit as a two-person machine shop in 1988. It has now grown to twenty employees in a 10,000-square-foot space, serving customers nationwide. The original owner shared his knowledge as he trained his new employees and grew the business over the years, but unfortunately, he passed away in 2014. His wife tried to keep the business growing successfully for several years, but she finally put it up for sale in 2020. That is when the current owner and general manager, Adam Mansuri, took the reins. He then began to steadily modernize and improve quality to expand the company’s customer base and capabilities.
The new owner’s search to find the right business at the appropriate price to purchase took nearly three years because, he says, “There are so many of them out there that suffer from customer concentration, or that really haven’t invested in the business enough, and there’s not really much there. What I tell people is that this place, the shop floor, the resilience is really high. There are not many businesses, small businesses in particular, that can say that they suffered a true key workforce loss and kept going. Most of the time, that’s not the case. Usually, the key man is what takes it down.” As he looked deeper into the company, he saw that despite the lack of hands-on technical knowledge of the owner at the time, the business was maintaining its customers and turning a profit, indicating that the machinists on staff were clearly good at what they did.
Mansuri closed the deal to buy V&G in March of 2020, just as the Covid pandemic began to cause major upheavals for the world’s businesses, but the shop was able to weather the difficult times without laying off a single employee. Mansuri was then able to call upon his background in mechanical and manufacturing engineering in the aerospace industry, to begin his efforts to move the company forward with more sophisticated operations, internally and externally.
Growth Under New Ownership
The core of skilled workers at V&G has expanded by just a few since the transition. Still, with more efficient methods and better equipment, the company has improved its already high-quality standards and progressed into more complex, intricate work. When they need to hire machinists, the owner says that it can be tough to find qualified people in the area, so they are cautious in the process and look to bring in already skilled workers. As the company expands further they will likely have to begin bringing in people required training on the job.
Helping Mansuri move the culture and capabilities forward is Chip Hejl, the Vice President of Business Development, who came on shortly after the change in ownership. Combining his experience in defense, aerospace, and machine parts engineering, with the owner’s background provides the company with the vision and expertise needed to implement the changes necessary to position V&G for future success and growth.
Breadth of High-Quality Service
The company serves a good mix of industries, including aerospace, defense, semiconductor, energy, firearms, electronics, and scientific instruments, with the vast majority of their work being longer-run production jobs, rather than prototype-oriented. V&G’s capabilities also cover a wide variety of materials and the company maintains a large group of suppliers that can provide them with what they need when they need it. Currently, the company uses a network of quality-certified outside vendors for some services. Bringing some of those services in-house in the future will better control quality and delivery as a goal for their future expansion.
Hejl says, “One of the things that we’re looking at is how we can better vertically integrate. There are certain things that have to be done to the product that ensure its integrity, especially in aerospace and defense.” Mansuri adds, “It’s a big investment. Obviously, we need more space before we can think about it, but I think we have to be in better control of what happens when the product leaves. The issue with outside processing is that usually you have a lot more money into the part than the processor, so the risk of something going wrong when you send it out doesn’t really add up.”
Connection and Communication are Key
The preferred sales method for V&G is personal contact through trade shows and conferences, as they feel that meeting people in person generates a stronger bond and is more likely to lead to longer-term relationships. Mansuri says, “We’re trying to find more customers that view us as partners to them. I would say that’s a big focus. It’s those longer-term customers that are partnership-driven. I want to emphasize our willingness to grow with our customers. Just email us, and we’ll help.” That longer-term work also helps smooth the volatility of the workload, making it easier to plan production scheduling.
Communication is a key aspect of that type of relationship, and V&G prides itself on keeping customers informed on progress and any issues with their projects. The company also holds numerous quality and CMMC cyber security certifications that help keep it ahead of much of the competition.
Further automation, robotics, and more capabilities for higher volumes and higher quality are what the company is looking for in the future, in addition to taking on some of the processes that they now have to send out. “The difficulty is properly timing the work coming in with the capacity we have on line. I think that’s just a given. I think our ability to learn new technology really quickly will be tough, but we have a really talented team, so we can learn pretty quickly when needed.”