WoodDigest.com |

Hard work, a good attitude and a strong work ethic are all important to a successful company. Bill Gassmann picked up such attributes growing up on an Iowa farm and has clearly applied them to the way he runs his business, BGS Enterprises.

After spending 12 years working as the production manager for another millwork company in the area, Gassmann, president of BGS Enterprises, decided he could do it better and opened BGS in 2002.

BGS’s product range is large and varied. Producing mostly high-end custom architectural millwork for the commercial market, BGS still doesn’t view any job as too small.

“If a customer comes in and needs a new hinge, we’ll do that for them. The biggest single job we’ve ever done so far, year-to-date was about $2 million,” Gassmann says. “Like I said though, we look for the commercial millwork type of stuff — hospitals, banks, schools, stuff like that. We do get into high-end residential jobs, which typically will be someone from a commercial project.”

Proving it is willing to do the out of the ordinary, BGS recently completed a deck for a customer for whom the company did the millwork for her entire house. Gassmann says BGS has also teamed up with a pipe organ company recently producing a variety of the pieces for its organs.

“Our real true niche is in the medical field. We do a line of medical work that goes into all hospitals and clinics in the United States and Canada, and now it’s actually being shipped to England, too.”

Gassmann partnered with a company in Kansas City that developed the product. BGS manufactures the cabinetry, and the other company puts the medical equipment in the cases and ships it off. There are about 20 different varieties of cabinets, which are designed to hold high-end medical equipment such as endoscopes, defibrillators and EKG equipment, Gassmann explains.

“It’s kind of my bread and butter. We’re working on that product every day,” Gassmann says. “Right now we’re going down to Kansas City twice a week delivering basically two truckloads a week to this guy.”

EMPLOYEES WITH A GOOD ATTITUDE MAKE A DIFFERENCE

One example of BGS’ values is its strong focus on customer service: The employees treat their customers the way they’d like to be treated.

“When we send something out, it’s absolutely right. If we screw up or we make a mistake, we fix it,” Gassmann says. “That’s a thing I do with my customers, I really believe in service and taking care of them. If someone calls and says, ‘This countertop has a scratch in it,’ and I know damn well the guy hanging the ceiling tile did it because he was standing on it, I don’t even question that; I just take care of it. I guess I don’t nickel-and-dime my customers to death like a lot of my competition does.”

A quality workforce is something BGS prides itself on. When hiring new employees, Gassmann is more concerned about their attitude and work ethic than their experience in a wood shop. “I train them the way I want them. Then I don’t have to fight ‘well the way I used to do it was … ’ ” Gassmann says.

Gassmann takes a coaching approach to training, he says. “As far as [training] in the shop, I go out and personally train individuals in certain areas and on certain machinery. That’s one way I’m different from most companies; I do and can do anything in this business so nobody can pull the wool over my eyes.”

In some cases employees will be sent to the machinery supplier for training, as was the case with the recently purchased Komo CNC router.

ON THE SHOP FLOOR

After a job is landed, BGS’ estimator works with the drafter to create shop drawings. While- the drawings are being created, a project manager takes on the job and creates the materials list and orders materials. Once corrections are made and the drawings are approved, everything goes to Gassmann, who does all the programming and design work for the shop.

“I engineer on every project, and it goes to the CNC and then through the shop,” he says.

Everything is pre-engineered in the office before a job goes out to the shop. “Basically my guys in the shop don’t have to figure out anything. If there’s a hole that needs to be drilled, a screw to be put in something, or a slot or routed, it’s all figured out in the office,” Gassmann says. “A lot of companies take a work order and just put it out there and say, ‘Here, figure it out and you’ve got two weeks to get it done.’ They’re cutting their own parts. I’m more departmentalized. I have individuals who do nothing but run the CNC, run the edgebander, work in the case clamp area, work in countertops. They are very specialized.”

BGS does all nested-based manufacturing. Everything is cut on the CNC machining center. After the materials are cut, the parts are loaded onto a cart and taken to the edgebander. After edgebanding, the pieces are sent to the Gannomat dowel bore machine.

“From there, it goes to the assembly area where they take the parts out, clean them, do subassembly, put on hardware and from there it goes down a conveyor … they stack the parts on a conveyor per cabinet. So all the cabinet parts, backs, drawers, doors, whatever is part of it goes down the conveyor in a pile. Then, one guy on one side of the clamp will grab the parts to do the assembly of the cabinet, and then the doors, drawers and shelves go to the other side of the clamp where the other guy pulls the cabinet out of the case clamp. He’ll do the final assembly in terms of putting doors, drawers and final adjustments on it and wrap it up,” Gassmann explains.

Gassmann says BGS is probably one of the most automated shops in the area. “The next thing I’m getting is some sort of robotics in the shop to help streamline different processes like in the edgebanding and on the CNC twin table to help get the output from that machine,” he says. “I personally run that machine from time to time, and that machine is so efficient and so fast one person cannot keep up with the machine on a steady basis. You can for about two days in a week, but by the end you’re dragging because that machine forces you to run.”

Gassmann is currently working with a couple robotic companies to come up with a way to get a robot on it.

“With the configuration of the machine, it’s been really tough to try and automate it and get a robot on there to get product on and off.”

There are also plans in the works to purchase a Biesse machine to help automate the machining and edgebanding all in one process and to minimize the handling of the parts, Gassmann says.

At the moment, BGS is outsourcing its finishing, but Gassmann hopes to have his own finish booth by the end of the year. “I actually have two finishers on staff who are chomping at the bit to do it. Right now I just don’t have the space, which is the big thing.”

Outsourcing the finishing portion can be a challenge, but for the moment it is a necessity for BGS.

“Really the only thing I don’t do here is the finishing. I’m sort of a perfectionist, so I struggle with outsourcing products just because I can’t get it done the way I need or want it done, or how I sold the job,” Gassmann says. “That’s what’s frustrating with the finishing. The finish is really the polish on the diamond so to speak. It’s something that when my product comes back, I just have to put my blinders on and keep my cool. I really struggle with that.”

Currently, BGS has lead times of about two to three weeks, with six to 10 projects running through the shop at any one time. “Typically when we start the shop drawing, in two to three weeks we’re building product.”

BGS has an installation crew of seven. However for some jobs, such as a project for John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the general contractor will use his own installation crew. “It all depends on the contractor that you’re dealing with. We’re seeing more and more [contractors] around here and in the Midwest that don’t have their own crews any more and part of the deal is you have to install your product,” Gassmann explains.

When BGS takes jobs across the country, it still sticks to the same lead times. However, two to three days need to be factored in to allow a semi-truck to make it to the jobsite with the product, on time.

“Actually the lead time for that [Florida job] was actually more aggressive than normal. They requested the product on certain days, and on a large job like that … we were actually a month ahead of time. We beat their deadline a month ahead of schedule,” Gassmann says.