St. Henry company grinding it out

ST. HENRY - A suggestion from a former supervisor led Tim Knapke to start a tool regrinding business in his home garage.

Fifteen years later, the business is no longer in his backyard. While still a small, local company, Knapke has embraced technology and innovation and caught the attention of large, international companies.

"I was with a local industry working in their regrinding department. I had a good relationship with my supervisor, and he said things were changing and I ought to look into starting my own business," Knapke said. "I started out part-time with a small shop in my garage. It just snowballed from there."

The business, Tru-Edge Grinding Inc. in St. Henry in Mercer County, launched in 1993 with first-year sales of $30,000. After deciding to pursue the business full-time in 1996, Knapke, the owner and general manager, grew the business on the strength of technology and innovation. Now, annual sales total more than $4 million, he said.

Part of what has made the business so successful is fully embracing new technologies as they emerge, Knapke said.

"I stay ahead of the curve. That's important to me," he said. "We would not be where we are today unless we did this. We had to decide where we were going to take this business. We decided it was better to partner with companies instead of competing against them."

The philosophy has paid off. Large corporations, such as Honda of America Manufacturing, sought out the special services provided by Tru-Edge to help make them more efficient.

Good partner

Officials at Tru-Edge partnered with Honda to develop a new tool regrinding technology that fit the automaker's specific needs for the tool. The partnership enabled Honda to save time and money in its operations and gave Tru-Edge the chance to make a name for the company that could lead to future initiatives.

"Specifically, they worked with our Anna Engine Plant on a new regrind technology that enabled us to bring the regrinding in-house. It has saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars because now we don't have to ship our tools out to Iowa," said Mike Wallace, manager of Honda's maintenance, repair and operational services purchasing. "They bring a lot of innovation to the table. As a result of their work, we can get a longer life out of the tools. They really understand how we're using these tools."

In appreciation, Honda presented Tru-Edge officials with a special recognition award.

"They are a very, very good company," Wallace said. "They are just the sort of company we like to partner with."

The recognition from Honda took Knapke by surprise, he said.

"It was wonderful. It caught us totally off-guard to have a company like Honda recognizing us," Knapke said. "It makes everyone feel wonderful. It just means a lot, especially in such a small shop like ours."

Knapke said Tru-Edge started out on a six-month trial with Honda on the project. By developing the technology and partnering with Honda to enable the automaker to bring the new machines into their plant, Honda will not have to have as large an inventory of tools.

"Their amount of inventory would have been huge if they had to send those tools out. It would have just been a huge cost to them," Knapke said. "The cost to grind is a fraction of what it would have been to send it out. It's all about price per part."

Wallace said Honda recognizes the commitment by officials at Tru-Edge to make both their company and all their partners better companies.

"We're looking at more ideas on how we can become more efficient," Wallace said. "They'll play a big part in that because this company is really thinking how can they improve our efficiency and make us a better company."

Moving forward

Tru-Edge, with 27 employees, is looking to move beyond the regrind technology that helped forge the relationship with Honda, Knapke said. Within the last month, the company installed and began operating a $750,000 investment in tool coating technology that will enable the company to regrind tools and make new tools that have a longer life. Last year, the company made another $750,000 investment in new grinding machines.

"It increases our efficiency because we no longer have to ship tools out to get the special coating. It was a huge benefit for us," Knapke said. "We deliberated on it for a long time. In the end, we decided to move ahead with it because it's all about tool life."

The company is now processing tools for a multitude of different applications and industries, Knapke said. The company works with automotive, aerospace, medical and surgical as well as tool and die industries.

"We're hoping, with Honda's blessing, we'll be able to coat their tools for them," Knapke said. "It will give them a better price and a better turnaround."

Reputation has been a big factor in growing the business, Knapke said.

"A lot of it has been word of mouth," he said. "We got a call from a company in California that heard about us word of mouth from a local company. The biggest lesson learned is the one-on-one relationships with the customers. Without that, you have nothing."