Metal processor and forklift user Keats Manufacturing Co has found business value with a customised online program, including website development and internet exposure.
Keats manufactures small custom-built metal stampings, wire forms and assemblies for multiple end markets, including automotive and defence. Most often, tiers 2 and 3 suppliers use Keats parts in electrical applications.
Keats began working with Thomas Industrial Network Inc (TIN) in 2008 implementing the ThomasNet program and became an early adopter of TIN's Custom SPEC program, which was announced in February.
Keats has about 170 employees, including 12 precision tool and die makers, in its Illinois headquarters, five in its Keats Coastal plant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and three in its Keats Southwest facility in El Paso, Texas. Other activity occurs in Taiwan. Orders range from small-scale prototypes to production runs exceeding 500 million pieces.
For unloading and positioning heavy coils of wire and other raw materials, Keats operates a variety of forklifts, including two Yales and one Caterpillar in the Illinois plant, a Toyota and a Hyster in Florida, and two Yales in Texas, reports Matt Eggemeyer, vice president and chief operating officer for the 53-year-old, family-owned and operated firm.
"Since we deployed our new internet strategy (in April 2009), sales have increased by 30%, and quotes have more than doubled from 600 to 1,400 in one year," Eggemeyer says. TIN "helped us to reach qualified prospects who would not otherwise have considered us, including one who placed a USD 1 million order." That project involves a lightweight metal clip for plastic bullets for soldiers to carry machine gun ammunition in the field.
For the elusive defence job, "I could have knocked on that guy's door and never gotten in", Eggemeyer says. "With our website positioning now, we come up in the top five of any (relevant internet) search."
Discussions with TIN led to development of a user-intuition-based, vastly upgraded website. Keats's previous website functioned more like an online brochure than a purposeful sales channel. The revamped website shows examples of Keats's custom work, gives detailed descriptions of prior projects, and structures product and services information.
"We realised automotive engineers don't care as much about the details of our history, that we started in Chicago as a one-man shop on Cicero Avenue," Eggemeyer says. "What they want to know is, 'Can you make a small terminal that's tin-plated and can it hold a plus or minus 0.003 spec?' Our site was woefully inadequate at giving engineers what they're looking for."
Eileen Markowitz, president of TIN, a subsidiary of New York-based Thomas Publishing Co LLC, says: "Custom SPEC provides custom manufacturers and industrial service companies with a new opportunity to generate more qualified sales leads, penetrate new markets and be considered for projects that would not otherwise come their way. The Custom SPEC strategy furthers our mission of fueling and supporting businesses in the industrial sector."
With higher sales, Keats Manufacturing may need to boost its forklift fleet in the future.