howeenterprise.com
Magni-Fab
Monday, February 22, 2016 continued from Page #3
"I was in Kingsville, Texas stationed in the Navy and I knew the people that started this facility, because I was from the same home town (Wooster, Ohio). I never had an affiliation with the company, but I knew some people that were here." said Swineford. He stopped in on his way from Kingville to Ohio and Magni-Fab offered him a position on the painting line. It wasn't really what he was hoping for and didn't want to be in the paint line, but spent 10 years there before becoming shop supervisor, and then into sales in 1985 and eventually worked his way up to general manager in 2007.
handling equipment such as the cotton gin industry that would pull metal from the cotton. In 1955, they started a fabrication division due to the metal applications that needed to be produced to move the magnets. The magnetic business is still small, but the fabrication businesses is now the backbone of the company. In the Howe plant, they make semi-truck parts for Peterbilt Motors Company's plant in Denton, Texas.
"There's a truck that comes by here everyday from Denton that picks up what we have to go over "That's what we do here." said there." said Swineford. "With all Swineford. "You start at the bottom of the JIT (just in time) we do a lot and work your way up. In today's of line sequencing. We'll package market, you have to find someone things that are going to right that is trainable and bring them up." straight into their line. They don't go into a warehouse or anything. The facility, then just the property They pick them up today and north of FM 902, wasn't quite tomorrow they're going to be on a finished when Swineford first was truck that's going off the line over hired by Magni-Fab. there." "When I first started here, there was only concrete on the east side of the building. The rest was still dirt." said Swineford. "There were still signs hanging up there for seating for the rodeos. The row numbers and everything were still there."
Everything is done with computers and entered electronically. MagniFab knows the sequence of every serial number that's going to be built. They will produce the floors of the sleeper cab and generally have different sizes of sleepers.
About a year later, they poured concrete and finished the interior and started hiring a local workforce. Swineford explained that in those days they could put an ad in the paper and hire for a brake operator. But times have changed and he says that no one knows what a brake operator is anymore. Therefore, they have to hire people with math skills that are able to be trained.
"We make the parts and they come on the right and on the left." said Swineford. "We kit them together on a rack by the truck number and they go Denton to a Tier 2 supplier that puts some stuff together and then they put this whole kit together for one cab to go to the plant in Denton."
Magni-Power started in 1948 as a magnet producer for material
With the oil and gas industry suffering, Magni-Fab's business is currently slow, but Swineford says that they are diversified enough to make it through slow times. He continued on Page #15
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