Graphite Machining into 2nd Shift
It’s no secret: Semco is growing. Our graphite production business has seen a strong uptick over the last year as demand for graphite machining continues to grow. We maximized production at our Lorain facility in every conceivable way to meet demand, including investing in new state-of-the-art machines, upgrading network capacity and remote conferencing for efficiency, and of course investing in our excellent workforce, the people that make Semco a leader in graphite machining. Our business really took off last year with a big push by our sales department. These initiatives have, so far in 2022, rewarded us with increased sales. Our success in these endeavors again made us push up against our graphite production limits. Our capacity on first shift is full. We did have one ace in the hole, though, one more efficiency that we had not yet tapped, but imagined that one day we might need to. We created a second shift.
With all of this growth in graphite production at Semco, creating a second shift was really the next logical step to expand capacity. It allows us to utilize our current machines’ availability, rather than adding more machines (which would require more space). The move to adding a second shift did require some hard decisions, though, with management determining that beginning the second shift of graphite machining should happen quickly. That urgency does mean that second shift will be staffed with a skeleton crew. This crew includes a supervisor, two of our experienced machinists, and an inspector. While those positions are all that are needed for second shift to help increase our production, a skeleton crew cannot fully utilize our production capacity. Everyone knows the story of the current job market now (and we have written extensively here about what the current job market means for graphite machining). We are, however, working diligently to populate an array of available positions on second shift. Semco hopes in the near future to have a full crew mirroring first shift numbers.
Establishment of a full second shift will allow us to obtain efficiencies in production times and delivery times. Ultimately, our customers will benefit, as we will meet the increased demand with shorter lead times. It is thrilling to work at a company that is growing and whose customers rely on and trust us for their graphite production needs. Because of the care we take to satisfy our customers, they recommend us to others. We see further growth potential on the horizon and will keep working to expand second shift to meet the growing demand for our graphite machining services.