KARLEE offers sheet metal fabrication, powder coating, wet painting, enclosures manufacturing, electro-mechanical integration and cabling.

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When KARLEE was incorporated in 1977, finding skilled employees to operate its precision machine manufacturing operations was relatively easy. Today, the number of employees with those skills set, continues to dwindle, so Vice President Chad Brumit says his company seeks candidates with an aptitude, desire and willingness to learn.

“We allow people to use that desire for growth to train to become higher-skilled team members,” Brumit adds. “The skill sets we need are dwindling away, so we use offline programming to utilize more operators with lower skill sets to produce the product while still maintaining our quality.”

KARLEE, based in Garland, Texas, with two additional locations in Dallas and McAllen, Texas, was founded as a machine shop but today also offers sheet metal fabrication, powder coating, wet painting, enclosures manufacturing, electro-mechanical integration and cabling. The company handles products for markets such as telecom, aerospace, defense, medical, semiconductor and commercial goods.

“We’re have over 300 people, so we have the scale and size to successfully manage large projects, but remain small enough to be flexible and responsive to the quick changes the industry throws at us,” Brumit adds. “Most of our competitors are smaller than us and thus not able to handle the larger projects, or are much larger billion-dollar corporations and are to slow to react customer’s needs, so we are perfectly positioned.”

Brumit recently took time to speak with U.S. Business Review about his company’s expansion plans, competition with offshore manufacturing and the family atmosphere KARLEE maintains.

U.S. Business Review: How would you describe KARLEE’s strengths in the industry?
Chad Brumit: Our processes are our main strength, and this is evidenced by winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2000. It is awarded by the President of the United States, and it recognizes best-in-class companies based on performance excellence. It does not mean we’re perfect, but we are on a path of continuous improvement.
    Another and perhaps our greatest strength is our people. We have great tenure and a family atmosphere. Without our people, nothing else would be possible.

USBR: Has the company had any recent developments?
CB: We’re in the process of expanding our McAllen location. It is a border town, so we’re trying to capitalize on some of the lower cost that we’ve realized in that area by putting the right type of work in that facility. We have 65,000 square feet and we have just moved two new pieces of equipment. We expect to double our head count over the next month.
    We are also upgrading the technology at Garland. We will do this as we move equipment to McAllen by replacing the Garland location’s equipment with newer technology. We are going to keep our Garland facility as a technology center for the company focused on the latest manufacturing techniques in support of prototypes and production.

USBR: What trends do you see in the industry, and how is KARLEE adapting?
CB: The offshoring of manufacturing jobs is the biggest trend, so what we’re doing is being more strategic with the types of projects we select and the customers we align ourselves with. For example, we are looking for the type of products that are mid-volume products and customers that desire long-term partnerships.
    We have also begun to see some products coming back into the United States. In order to capitalize on this trend we use our McAllen facility to produce at a lower price point for the customer while controlling quality and keeping the lead-time short by manufacturing the product in the U.S.

USBR: What is your vision of the future?
CB: We have a very clear goal. We want to reach $100 million in sales by 2011. To do that, we are going to continue expanding our facilities, capabilities and sales force, plus look for partnerships or joint ventures in Asia and India.
Ten years from now, we expect to have four or five facilities throughout the United States and abroad so we are close enough to support our customers wherever their needs take them.