"Smith Machinery is a company that knows who their customers are, what they do and how they do service. World Class"
Steve Schultz
GSC Foundries
Smith Machinery Co. Celebrates 57 Years Serving The
Manufacturing Industry & 40 Year Partnership with Mazak In The Rocky Mountain Region
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Clark Smith, President and owner of Smith Machinery Co. Inc., says, “The US is in a renaissance of manufacturing, and the outlook for manufacturers is really bright. While there will be ups and downs, industry forecasts predict that we can expect to see growth for the next 5 years at the very least.” Clark’s educational background is in economics, and he is an avid researcher into the economic environment in manufacturing. He is the 4th generation Smith family member dedicated to serving machine shops throughout Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. You could say the Smith family is passionate about manufacturing. The Smith legacy started in 1923 with Arthur Smith selling machine tools. Arthur’s son Edward, equipped with an engineering degree from Stanford University, joined the business. Year’s later, Edward’s son Tracy Smith (Clark’s father), finishing a tour in the Navy, came to join the company. Clark says, “We’ve built our business with a team that is well versed in the machine tool industry.
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What differentiates Smith Machinery Co.?
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Applications Engineering – Clark says, “We have found that having a dedicated applications engineer on staff is absolutely critical to helping our customers maximize their machine tool investments. AJ Tucker joined the Smith Machinery team more than 5 years ago. Along with his aptitude and machine shop background, we’ve invested significantly in providing him with training. AJ does part process evaluations and time studies for our customers, he’s available to answer technical questions, and he provides onsite training and classroom training. While our service team fixes machines, AJ’s job is all about machine tool productivity improvement. In the end, this helps our customers operate more profitably and competitively.”
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Local Mazak Factory + Distributor Service Support – Our sales and service territory of Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming is over 330,000 sq. miles of geography (that’s larger than two California’s put together). So, creating a service support team that can respond quickly and support a broad range of technologies has been a critical element of Smith Machinery’s success. We are unique in having both Mazak Factory Service Technicians (Dave Jacobs and Ernie Mankin) living here, as well as four (3) Smith-Neotech service technicians with both factory training and decades of experience with all types of machine tools and CNC’s. Larry, Paul, Justin and Amy make a great team to serve our customers with installs, repairs and PM’s. Larry even has his own plane. It comes in handy from time-to-time. Having Mazak Factory Service Technicians here means we have the type of support critical to the success of the higher technology installations. “Our Mazak factory technicians are the specialists, much like surgeons.” Smith Machinery has been very successful supporting customers that have made investments in 5-axis machines, INTEGREX 5-axis multitasking centers, Gantry-Style Load/Unload Robots and Palletech Manufacturing Cells. All together there are well over 100 of these types of high technology machines, robots and cells installed here. “Higher technology keeps our customers competitive, and local factory service support is critical at that level of investment”.
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A Dedicated and Knowledgeable Staff – The majority of the team has been supporting Smith Machinery’s customers for many years now. Customers all know and love the office staff, Sue, Olivia, and Thi. The three have more than 3 decades combined years supporting Smith Machinery’s customers. They know every customer, every resource for parts and supplies and coordinate the unique service structure the company has created. It’s not unusual for Smith Machinery’s customers to come and take them to lunch as a “thank you” for the great support they provide. Though Klaus has only been with the company for a few years, he was a former machine shop owner and long-time customer of Smith Machinery. He brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his customers. David Soares has been crucial addition to the sales team. He has previous experience in machines tool sales. Many customers still remember Edward and Tracy Smith, the 2nd & 3rd generations, and their passion for integrity that is definitely part of the company’s culture. Tracy’s son Clark has dedicated the past 35 years serving loyal Smith Machinery customers.
ISO Certification – Machine shops certify to ISO 9001:2015 on a regular basis, sometimes because their customers require it to ensure proper processes are in place to deliver quality parts. It is much less common for a machine tool dealer to certify to this rigorous quality standard. Smith Machinery did just this in 2006. Clark says, “We certified because we wanted to improve our in-house processes. We knew this would facilitate better transactions and improve the long-term support to our customers.” He says, “ISO certification also required that we survey our customers. We do this, and we get very candid feedback from our customers -- and it results in process improvements.” “Lastly”, he continued, “We wanted to walk the walk with our customers, understanding what they went through to certify and live by the ISO standards. It’s been invaluable to making us a better supplier/partner for our customers.”
Smith Machinery Offers Superior Machine Tool Technologies.
Smith Machinery Supports Manufacturing Associations – The Smith Machinery Co. has long been active in national associations dedicated to promoting and improving manufacturing. They were very active members of the American Machine Tool Dealers Association (AMTDA), now AMT (with both Tracy and Clark serving as NationalChairman), and they support the NTMA Northern Utah Chapter (a newer chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA)
Mazak – 42 years ago, Smith Machinery was awarded the prestigious Mazak machine tool line, and Clark says that it serves his customers very well. “Mazak is known for always embracing high-technology, and they set themselves apart by making it easier to use. That’s a major reason why there are so many high-technology Mazak machines in our territory”. “In addition”, he continued, “Mazak is a privately held family-owned company, with factories all over the world. It was 40 years ago this year that they completed the U.S. factory in Florence, Kentucky. Since that time, they have continuously made additional investments in growing the factory here. Today their campus in Florence, Kentucky is nearly 1 million square feet, and they employ more than 800 people here in the United States. Their latest expansion will be finished by the end of this year and with it they will have the capacity to produce up to 200 CNC machine tools per month. The vision to build this factory, over 40 years ago, was amazing. The commitment to continuously invest and grow the plant since then is unmatched. They have served U.S. manufacturers through good economies and bad, but they never wavered in their long-term strategy to support their customers here.”
Mitsubishi – Smith Machinery is the full-line Mitsubishi distributor for this area. They are known as leaders in EDM machines, lasers (both fiber & CO2) and Roku-Roku (graphite and H.S. milling centers), yet they also have excellent press brakes, waterjets, VMC’s & drill/tap machines. Last year, Smith Machinery received an award from Mitsubishi for achieving greater than 30% market share in their EDM sales. Clark says that Mitsubishi accounts for more than 40% of all EDM sales in the United States. They have excellent technologies all backed by dozens of service technicians and applications engineers.
Star CNC – Clark says, “The Star CNC Swiss machine has been outstanding product line for our customers. We selected this manufacturer not only because of their capabilities, especially for serving the medical industry here, but also because of their superior support in our region. Our customers have a readily available group of outstanding service and application support team in the western region”. Our customers know the support is always there for them”. He continued, “Star has been able to take companies with no CNC experience, train them, train them some more, and facilitate their move to CNC and high volume production. Recently, one of our customers was making prototype parts for a new product, and they knew that they would have to purchase their first Swiss-style machine once they were awarded the production contract. It happened, and Star made sure they had the new machine installed and were up and running the production order in less than 2 weeks.”
ANCA – Clark says that the ANCA tool & cutter grinders are a unique machine tool technology, that has evolved from a supporting role (sharpening and customizing cutting tools), into a product that can make surgical tools & implants and has new technologies for working with Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD). ANCA is a technology and software driven company that is setting itself apart by taking the typical T&C grinder and adapting them to non-traditional applications. They also have the expertise to incorporate automation either at the factory or in the field.
Romi – Smith Machinery added the Romi machine tool line to their portfolio in 2005, and Clark says it’s just been a great product for their customers. He elaborates, “Romi built all the Bridgeport Easy Path CNC lathes for many years. When Bridgeport went through a bankruptcy, Romi decided to set-up their own facility in the U.S. and sell through their own distributor network. “Today”, Clark says, “Romi refined the design of their combination (manual/CNC) lathe to be the best product available. Our customers appreciate the easy to use Romi software and that the machines are simple and fast; in essence they are an optimal solution for machine shops who are doing low volume production, tooling, prototype and also for shops that are rethreading pipe for the oil/gas industry.” The Smith Machinery Team
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Loves Animals – This is good for machine shop owners, because dog lovers are good people. In a study conducted by BuzzFeed Animals, the following is true of dog lovers. They’re super fun at parties, they are smart, they know the value of a little R & R, they’ll give you a hug when you need it most (typically, dog owners are more nurturing), and they are more likely to be “team players.” In our industry, if you tour machine shops, you will likely encounter a company dog (or cat) at many of the shops. To learn more about Smith Machinery Co., and what they can do for your for your business, contact them at 801-263-6403 or visit their website at smithmachinetools.com.
Better yet, visit the Smith Machinery team personally. You’ll find good people, and if you are a dog lover, you will love meeting Cade! |
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41 West Guest Avenue
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
Phone: 801-263-6403
Fax: 801-263-6404 Email: smc@smithmachinetools.com
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
Phone: 801-263-6403
Fax: 801-263-6404 Email: smc@smithmachinetools.com