Success Story
Details
This company provided critical component inspection, testing and surface treatment process for the aerospace, defense and semiconductor industries. Over the years the company gained nationally recognition for its innovation, quality and “one-stop-shopping” approach to special processing needs.
A combination of increasing foreign competition and defense/aerospace down-sizing impacted both sales and profitability. Trade impaction was in the firm’s chemical surface treatment processes from European firms. The manufacture of component parts used by its customers was increasingly sourced offshore. The company, with assistance from the University of Southern California’s Western Trade Adjustment Assistance Center (Western TAAC) became certified as trade impacted by the US Dept. of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA).
Western TAAC and the company’s management developed a strategy to capture a larger portion of the aerospace and defense market with its core processes and expand into the Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) component cleaning market in the semiconductor industry.
Over a 8 month period, Western TAAC and the company’s management implemented a comprehensive information technology project that significantly upgraded the company’s information system to support the implementation of this strategy
Three years after program completion, the results are remarkable. This project along with other strategy implementation led to outstanding growth and stability for the firm. As a result, in the 4 1/4 years since the firm began working with the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms program, sales increased 248% to $14.7 million, employment increased 252% to 211, and profitability doubled.