Magni-Fab

"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.

"That's what we do here." said Swineford "You start at the bottom and work your way up In today's market, you have to find someone that is trainable and bring them up "

The facility, then just the property north of FM 902, wasn't quite finished when Swineford first was hired by Magni-Fab

"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."

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

Magni-Power started in 1948 as a magnet producer for material 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 there." said Swineford. "With all of the JIT (just in time) we do a lot of line sequencing We'll package things that are going to right straight into their line They don't go into a warehouse or anything They pick them up today and tomorrow they're going to be on a truck that's going off the line over 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.

"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 "

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 from Page #3 continued on Page #15