Small Delaware Manufacturer, Big Regional Impact

Miller Metal provides efficient and high-quality solutions

BY COLIN HEFFINGER

IT ISN’T EVERY DAY that a business is highlighted for making consistently large regional impacts from Bridgeville—one of Western Sussex County’s oldest towns with a population just over 3,000. Additionally, it isn’t every day that a business acquires the opportunity to retrofit subways in New York City or provide fabrication services to the city of Philadelphia.

Located in the upper eastern limits of Bridgeville along Route 13, Miller Metal Fabrication, Inc. is a flourishing leader in Delaware’s manufacturing sector with specialization in a variety of metal services such as laser cutting, CNC forming, design engineering, welding, and fabrication. Throughout major cities like Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, Miller Metal Fabrication provides lean manufacturing and the latest technology to maximize customer satisfaction throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Martin (Marty) W. Miller Jr. started out as a food processing equipment inventor for his first shop in 1983. By 1995, Miller Jr. founded Miller Metal as a metal fabrication company focused on production efficiencies. Miller Metal has expanded to over 100 employees and is looking to continue growing their space and staff for a secondary warehouse next to their current site in Bridgeville. This would provide Miller Metal double the amount of space to incorporate new technologies and continue matching with growing demand.

Martin Miller III, one of Miller Jr.’s sons and senior account manager, defines what makes Miller Metal Fabrication a distinctive business in manufacturing. “Here at Miller Metal, we continuously focus our reinvestments on technology,” Martin III states. “We reinvest in purchasing new and emerging software and machinery. We have these million-dollar machines that are more efficient and productive, which in return creates value for our customers.”

Miller Metal excels in the utilization of lean manufacturing techniques to eliminate process wastes and maintain a high level of product quality and efficiency. This provides Miller Metal the opportunity to serve a large variety of customers and create tremendous impact on the rebuilding of major infrastructure. The team has worked on projects such as retrofitting a New York City subway station, creating panels for the new NYPD Training Academy, and installing steel beams utilized in LED sculpture lights for the latest Dallas Cowboys headquarters, to name a few.

Miller III reflects on the role of teamwork at Miller Metal. “We try to have a professional atmosphere, but still maintain a level of comradery,” he explains. “The owner has a lot of rapport with employees by playing a role in helping work get done on the warehouse floor. There are people here who genuinely enjoy the type of manufacturing that we are doing—the process and technology that goes into it. Getting to see things built and see our products in place. There’s something humbling about driving down a road in upstate New York and seeing our Miller Metal truck delivering parts. We’re a small Delaware company having a big impact throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.”

Here at Miller Metal, we continuously focus our reinvestments on technology. We reinvest in purchasing new and emerging software and machinery.

Miller III signifies how the pandemic has shifted different aspects of their work and provided new opportunities for growth. “It was slow for a few weeks after the beginning,” Martin elaborates. “Suddenly ventilator work for a company out of New York City kept us busy. We were swamped shortly after and had to keep up with customer needs. We’ve been consistently busy since then, but metal inflation prices are three times what they were in December 2020. We’re concerned for the future impact on our customers and our industry as metal prices continue to rise. It’s been increasingly harder to acquire metal resources as the result of shortages.”

“We aim to provide an efficient and high-quality solution for our customers,” Martin III reflects. “We don’t have a lot of our business in the local area, but we are searching to find good employees with technical experience from the local workforce pools. Individuals who are interested in a hybrid role between computer skills and hands-on work have a great opportunity to excel here. We look forward to continued growth as we meet the needs of our customers.”

Colin Heffinger is a communications professional and freelance writer.