Executive VP Kris Hanchette explains that this Dallas company stays sharp through innovation.
Written by Anne-Frances Hutchinson and Produced by Brandon Bloch
Chances are you’ve seen the product of MultiCam’s CNC machining technology without realizing it. An aluminum-hulled rescue craft helping to pluck the passengers off a US Airways flight out of the Hudson River; a Starbucks coffee sign; a greeting card for a loved one – all manufactured using the Dallas-based company’s innovative CNC machinery.
Since 1989, MultiCam has literally been on the cutting edge of precision machining technology, developing, engineering and manufacturing CNC routers, water jet, plasma, laser and knife cutters and tooling controls.
MultiCam has experienced steady growth since its founding in 1989 by providing superior quality CNC machines at attractive prices. Co-owner and EVP Kris Hanchette has been with the firm for more than 15 years; with fewer than 10 staffers, Hanchette was hired to overseen the company’s support department. He quickly found himself doing a little bit of everything, from wiring and assembly to service and sales, and helping MultiCam build a formidable export business.
Hanchette notes that the development of international business helped the company hone its edge as a producer of very high quality products. As he tells it, “the overseas markets actually helped us more than anything to professionalize our machines. We were growing very rapidly for years, and every year the company’s been busy as we’ve grown, and every year we’ve been profitable. But as we started to get to more mature markets, like Germany and the Benelux, we were really pushed by the local markets to improve our quality and improve the fit and finish. It made sense to take those advancements and put them back into the standard machine and evolve it overall.”
Single product to full line
Initially, the company built custom machines for single customers, such as Ingersoll-Rand. A bent towards customization combined with exquisite engineering enthralled their customers, whose demands led to the development of a full range of robotic cutting systems.
“Our customers are loyal,” Hanchette explains. “Early on they began to eat, sleep and drink MultiCam, so we filled in the product lines around things that were synergistic for them and us as a company.” Today, MultiCam supports 68 distributors around the world, each of whom is highly trained in sales and service. Each of MultiCam’s tech centers stock parts, have factory trained technicians and demonstration machinery. The firm recently opened a large tech center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“We wanted to have an advanced showroom where we could bring anyone in for a demonstration or for training where we actually have a whole product line on display,” Hanchette points out. “You can walk in the door -- we always joke “bring your piece of Unobtainium in” – and we generally can figure out how to cut anything.”
All MultiCam’s standard machines are fabricated entirely on-site under a tightly-controlled manufacturing process. “In the early days we were an automation company that was slow to automate. Once we figured it out we jumped in with both feet,” Hanchette chuckles. “All of our capabilities are under roof. We have a machining center where we can machine extremely large pieces and we apply a lot of CNC technology; I’m running roughly 15 CNC’s in my own production to build CNC’s.”
Balancing intricacy, usability
MultiCam’s designers and engineers have made it their mission to develop products that are highly sophisticated and remarkably easy to use. Striking this fragile balance effectively has been another mark of their success.
“We’ve worked very, very hard on the controls interface,” Hanchette affirms. “When I came here the first thing I noticed was the controls interface of most of these machines, which was very complex. From that time on we’ve really worked hard to try and make sure that anybody can use them.”
As a result, he says, it’s no longer necessary to have an advanced technology degree to operate the machines the company manufactures. “Your average shop floor worker may have not even completed high school, or perhaps doesn’t speak English very well. Our success is that we can get those people to run our machines,” he says.
The units are easy to maintain, too. “There are very few or proprietary components, so if you’re halfway around the world you can get parts locally and actually service the machine. They are very well-rounded systems.”
Staying sharp
Staying on the leading edge of continually evolving technology takes no small amount of agility, but MultiCam is a manufacturer ready and able to shift with market demands. “We’re never really satisfied,” Hanchette admits. “When we finish a design we immediately turn around and try to figure out how to make it better. We find that we’ve picked up distributors that over time were selling some of our competitors’ products and said, ‘my customers have had their machines for six or seven years and now they want to update to the latest technology, but the product I’m selling is exactly the same as it was eight years ago.’ We’re able to pick up a lot of these accounts because we stay on the cutting edge. We stay fresh because we’re constantly pushing ourselves.”
View Digital Corporate Profile of Multicam in Manufacturing Digital February 2009