Usha Janome Sewing Machines Perambur- VS Sewing Machines
The Machine Shop That Could Turns 50
Atlanta Attachment Co. has grown from a small machinery company to a leader in automated equipment for a variety of industries. Regardless how the Lawrenceville, Georgia-based business has grown, it’s never lost sight of its roots and values
In 50 years, Atlanta Attachment Co. has grown
from a tiny business operating in a home basement to a manufacturer of
automated and custom systems, machinery, equipment and parts serving a
half-dozen industries in more than 75 countries.
Yet midway through its history, it wasn’t clear that the company would survive at all.
What kept AAC afloat then and what has
led to its growth since are a “we’re all in this together” mindset and a
fearlessness when it comes to change. Both attitudes are exhibited
companywide, from the senior leadership team to the factory floor
workers, says Hank Little, who joined the Lawrence-ville, Georgia-based company as vice president of sales in 2003 and was named president in 2006.
“We still maintain a good family business
atmosphere and work together as a team,” Little says. “That tone was
set by (founder) Elvin (C. Price). Everyone genuinely cares about the
success of the business. It sounds corny, but we’re a very open company.
Everyone here knows what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Over the
years, we’ve learned to adapt to market changes. We’re not scared to try
new things, so we can stay competitive.”
Problem, meet solution
Elvin C. Price retired in 2016, after selling the company he founded to HSM.
AAC got its start as many companies do: Elvin C. Price
saw a problem that needed fixing and decided he was the one to do it.
In this case, Price was sweeping floors after school in a sewing factory
in South Carolina when he noticed that the machine operators had
trouble controlling the fabric and turning out consistent products.
Price started fashioning machine attachments from scrap metal, giving
them away to factory workers for free. That eventually led to a job as a
sewing machine technician in Atlanta, but Price was frustrated by some
of the inferior products his employer offered customers. He knew he
could do better and, in 1969, started the company that would become AAC
in his home basement.
For its first 25 years, AAC hummed along
nicely as a manufacturer and servicer of sewing machines and other
equipment for the apparel industry. By 1990, it was operating in an
80,000-square-foot facility in Lawrenceville and, by 1994, had more than
200 employees. But the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took
effect in 1994, scuttled its trajectory. In a few short years, U.S.
apparel manufacturers started closing domestic factories until few
remained.
“At the time, we were nearly 100% in the apparel industry,” Little says. “What were we going to do?”
Diversifying was one answer. Around 1999, AAC was
approached by a company that had heard of its machining capabilities and
asked if AAC could build a mattress handle machine. Intrigued by
possible opportunities in the bedding industry, AAC executives visited
the International Sleep Products Association’s biennial ISPA EXPO in
2000 and then exhibited a handful of machines at the 2002 show.
AAC
opened its current headquarters and production facility in 2007. The
building was designed with cost-savings and environmental sustainability
in mind.
The mattress industry became the largest segment of AAC’s
business and ushered in a new period of growth. In 2007, the company
celebrated the opening of a new 200,000-square-foot headquarters and
production facility spacious enough to fabricate the large pieces of
mattress machinery that had become a significant part of its business.
“We wanted to make a statement to the mattress industry that we were
committed to it,” Little says. The building was designed with a number
of environmentally responsible features that also made it more
cost-effective than AAC’s previous facilities. In 2016, AAC added an
annex, bringing the total square footage at its Lawrenceville location
to 250,000 square feet.
But AAC never forgot the lesson about diversification it
learned when the domestic apparel industry collapsed. Today, in addition
to the mattress and furniture industries, it services automotive,
aviation, carpet, contract manufacturing and even still some apparel
makers. The company’s 138 employees are cross-trained to work with
customers across all those industries. http://www.vssewingmachine.com/sewing-machine-showroom-perambur/
Little says the Great Recession taught
AAC another valuable lesson: Expand not only the industries you service,
but also the regions you reach. Today, the company has customers in
more than 75 countries and has exhibited at trade shows in China,
Germany, India, Italy, Turkey and Japan, as well as the United States.
“After NAFTA, we had to reinvent the
company and, then in 2008, when the economy declined, we had to expand
the markets we serve and the regions we serve,” Little says. “We’re not
tied to any one industry. While bedding is the biggest part of what we
do, we’re in many other industries, as well.”
“A challenge is an opportunity”
At its core, Little says, AAC remains “a machine shop,” although the
demands its customers make of those machines are more complex than ever
before. Mattress manufacturers, in particular, want machines that
reduce labor costs, deskill operations, increase production rates,
communicate with other equipment, update automatically and can be
repaired by remote technicians. And increasingly, bedding producers also
want equipment to compress and roll pack components, as well as
complete mattresses.
“From the development point of view,
we’re constantly faced with the necessity to develop more sophisticated
machinery,” Little says. “We continue to reinvest in R&D to develop
new products, new ways to manufacture and new ways to put products
together.”
Adding to the complexity in bedding are
the industry’s rapid changes in terms of mattress constructions and
production requirements. “I’d say machine lifespans have been shortened
by at least one-third since I started in the business (in 2003),” Little
says. It’s not that machines don’t last as long as before, it’s that
mattress manufacturers demand new capabilities, he explains.
“A challenge is an opportunity because it
drives innovation,” Little says. “We try to stay open-minded and find
new ways of looking at things.”
To address many mattress manufacturers’
needs, AAC unveiled a host of new machines at Interzum Cologne in
Cologne, Germany, in May. They included the Industry 4.0 Shop Floor
Control System, a suite of software-based tools that track, schedule and
report on manufacturing processes; and the 1406C Mattress Packaging
with Compression machine, which uses heavy-duty hydraulic platens to
compress and then wrap beds even 14 inches thick.
Operating in a number of different
geographic markets, AAC also must adjust to their varying needs. “A bed
in the U.S. is very different from a bed made in the U.K. or in Mexico,”
Little says. “We have to build modular machines so we have flexibility.
We also have to build equipment that can be broken down and shipped by
container around the world. All of those considerations go into the
design process.”
“Sudden Service”
Early in the company’s history, Price adopted a motto of “Sudden Service” and it has remained a guiding principle for AAC.
Little points to strong customer service
as one of three columns upon which the company rests when distinguishing
itself from competitors; the other two columns — R&D and a strong
technical staff — are linked to customer service, too.
“We’re investing in future research and
development to serve our customers so they stay competitive, and we have
a strong technical staff. That’s becoming more and more important
today,” Little says. For instance, he explains, “fewer and fewer people
understand ‘Stitchology 101’ or sewing machines in general, so we do a
lot of teaching about sewing.”
The Atlanta Parts Depot, opened in 2006,
also helps service customers by supplying expendable replacement parts
for AAC machinery (for as long as 10 years after a machine has been
discontinued), as well as parts for equipment made by other brands. The
parts segment has grown to be a “nice portion of what we do,” Little
says.
New ownership for the next era
As Little noted, among its employees, AAC
continues to cultivate the feeling of a family-run business, although
Price retired in 2016 and sold the company to HSM in Hickory, North Carolina, which operates AAC as an independent division.
“The ownership transition has been good,”
Little says. “HSM has a highly diversified portfolio, such as their
transportation division and foam fabrication unit, and that’s opened up
some new market opportunities for us.”
But the “biggest change is the fact that
there’s been little change at AAC,” Little adds. “They like what we’ve
been doing and asked us to keep doing it.” A few AAC employees retired
around the time of the sale, but the senior management team largely
stayed in place, he says. One retiree, Ronnie Ford, longtime AAC chief financial officer and chief operating officer, now serves on the HSM board.
Keeping a consistent team was important to Ford, Price and Little as they negotiated the sale.
“We asked, ‘What’s going to change?’
Without our employees we’re nothing. We were worried about our
employees,” Little says. “(HSM) told us they thought they were buying a
successful business and would be here to help.” AAC continues to be
managed as it was prior to the sale, according to both AAC and HSM.
AAC’s lack of employee turnover is a
point of pride for Little. “We are a close-knit company. That’s why I
use the term family,” he says. “As president, I have an open-door
policy. I want everyone to feel like they can come talk to me.”
The company continues to invest in its
workforce, including paying for education. “If anyone wants to learn
more, we’ll pay for position-related classes as long as they make a C or
better,” Little says. “We always encourage people to continue their
education and want to offer advancement opportunities for people inside
the company.”
The next 25 years
As Little reflects on the company’s golden anniversary, he’s already looking ahead.
“It’s a big responsibility from where I
sit. We’ve got 138 employees and their families to take care of and a
50-year history to honor,” he says. “I want to grow this business and
keep it strong and healthy so we can make it to the next milestone of 75
years.”
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