Tube bending, the lean way--Wisconsin tube shop bends on demand

摘要

Jim Crunewald remembers the phone conversation. It was his friend, Steve Donovan. Grunewald hung up feeling exhilarated and terrified, typical for an aspiring entrepreneur. To have time to launch a new business, Donovan quit his perfectly good job, and Grunewald had just done the same.For years the two had talked about launching a midtier tube bending company, bigger than a mom-and-pop but smaller than a production bending facility. Small shops require less revenue to make a good profit; large tube bending companies benefit from few changeovers and long production runs. The midtier operation, though, can be a challenge. Theyhave more overhead than garage shops and certainly don't have the capacity of larger operations. So why launch such an organization from the get-go?