In 2006, machine tool buyers seeking a manufacturing edge helped push Haas Automation Inc. to its best year in history. Sales of Haas CNC machine tools rose almost 24%, to 12,500 units, increasing revenue nearly 30% to more than $740 million, reports John Roth, director of customer service.
General manager Bob Murray expects that machining trend to continue as more large production shops find value in a product approach Haas first refined for its initial market -- America's job shops.
One aspect is product reliability, where Haas targets an annual 20% improvement, says Roth. He says the company's high volume OEM customers also trend toward the Haas parts and service strategy, which is still geared toward the lack of backup machines typical of a job shop.
John Roth, director of customer service, Haas Automation Inc.
"Without machine redundancy, the typical job shop owner can be highly dependent on a single machine," Roth notes. "It has to be kept running." To maintain service satisfaction, Haas routinely phones customers to evaluate service performance.
Another Haas trend is ease of use, in terms of such things as setup, accessing data and programming.
For 2007, Roth expects those machining trends to help boost revenues to more than $800 million. Help to reach that prediction will come from the annual dozen or more new product introductions plus a global sales strategy. Roth says that approximately 52% of the output of the solitary Haas plant (Oxnard, Calif.) is shipped to the growing list of global customers. For example, Haas just enlarged its three-year-old Shanghai, China, presence with a new headquarters and showroom facilities. Haas shipped its first machine, a vertical milling machine, in 1988.
