Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Lennartz.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Greg. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My parents bought a small machine shop under a different name in 2005, with 2 employees. I started by simply cutting raw stock and observing how the machinery and processes work. Soon after, we had the economic downturn and I saw my parents, Clay and Marie Lennartz, work like no other so that they didn’t lose everything they had invested in this business that took a lifetime to earn. Through their perseverance, new employees, and a lot of luck – our company grew to where it is today.
The business model they dreamed up is the other portion to our success. We like to call ourselves a “one-stop-shop” for manufacturing. Not only do we have a large assortment of equipment and the abilities to make the most difficult items, but we have built a network of partnerships to get anything made. Large customers are our bread and butter, but we are able to scale with the smaller start-ups. We still employ old-school machinists to make the one and two piece orders, so on new products and technologies we can get through the learning curve one the prototypes and still come through in the larger quantities. This keeps startups from losing time trying to find another qualified vendor as they grow, we can just stick together from the beginning and build long-term relationships.
As for myself, I knew manufacturing was in my blood since I was a young boy. My father had an apartment in Shanghai for his job and I ended up going to work with my mother quite often. To keep me busy, they let me assemble and test pressure gauges like they were legos. When I was 13 my father bought me my first classic car for $500. It was a rust bucket, but it launched me into a passion where I learned how to work with metal. Now, after graduating high school in two years, I was able to get a mechanical degree then a business degree from U-Mass. Looking forward, the plan is for me to keep running with what we have and continue growing it to be a world class manufacturing company in a state full of emerging technology.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Finding employees has been a huge challenge. Our compensation is at the top of the market because we need the best craftsmen, but even that can’t help make up for the huge skills gap in the economy. There has been a push for young people to go to college, which is great, but the trades have ended up forgotten. Our workforce is ageing and there are very few new-comers to manufacturing to keep the skill alive as workers retire.
I think part of this is from their parents remembering all the manufacturing going overseas a few decades ago. What a lot of people don’t hear about is something called “the cost of quality”. That’s the cost of lost time and money from needing to scrap bad components and waiting to have them remade on the other side of the world. Sure, toys, electronics, and things being produced in the millions makes sense to offshore, but much of what we do is too finicky to do that with, or even regulated so it can’t be made outside of the states.
Our employee retention is near perfect, we take great care of our employees, but we have been in very high demand and can’t find the people to keep up with the work.
Excell Solutions – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our company is different in many ways. It’s uncommon to see a machine shop, sheet metal fabrication, welding, and engineering under one roof. Let alone to the degree we do it with. Some of the parts we make half a flatness less than a wavelength of light. The components we make literally end up as far apart as physically possible, from the bottom of the ocean to space. There is very little that we can’t make, and we often end up earning work that no other company will touch. Being small keeps us fast paced and agile, and having a few engineers on staff allows us to help our customers design things to be less expensive, stronger, and more efficient. We don’t actually design our own products, our engineers are here to help our customers and solve their problems.
Some of the products we help build include underwater robots, various clean tech projects with wind and solar, drones, satellite grade optical housings, prototype aircraft, battleship armor, hard drive crushers, x-ray equipment, many experimental projects, and we are even ITAR registered with the government so we can build military applications. You name it, we can make it.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Easy, repeat customers. If our customers comes back for our help time and time again, we know we are succeeding at what we are here to do. We appreciate our customer’s satisfaction and the relationships we build, we even frame many of the thank-you emails we get to show off the ways we have gone above and beyond to get our customers back on track.
Contact Info:
- Address: 18 Esquire Road
Billerica, MA 01862 - Website: www.ExcellSol.com
- Phone: 978-663-6100
- Email: Greg.Lennartz@excellsol.com
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