Dane Manufacturing was recently recognized for the 8th time on The Fabricator’s Fab 40 list. The Fabricator is a respected publication within the metal fabrication industry, providing valuable insights and information to professionals throughout the sector.
Each year, they compile the Fab 40 List, highlighting the top 40 metal fabricators in North America. Ranking on the Fab 40 showcases Dane’s dedication to continued growth through a commitment to quality, innovation and customer satisfaction. To commemorate the accomplishment, we sat down with Dane Manufacturing’s President, Mike Lisle for his thoughts on what continued placement in the Fab 40 means for Dane’s customers.
Dane: First off, congratulations on making the Fab 40 list again in 2024!
ML: Thanks! It truly is an honor to continue to be listed amongst some of the best metal manufacturers in the United States. It’s something we all take pride in.
Dane: So. tell us, what does Dane’s listing in the Fab 40 signify?
ML: Well first off, in order to be included in that list, you’ve had to delight a significant number of customers consistently over the course of many years. You have to be excellent at what you do and equally important, you must be driven to help your customers achieve excellence.
Dane: You mention the drive to help your customers achieve excellence. Can you tell us why that is a critical piece that contributes to Dane remaining in the Fab 40 for so many years running?
ML: Yes of course. This is Dane’s 8th time making this list. If you look at past Fab 40 lists, it is remarkable how much growth is required to stay on the list. When we first achieved this award, you could be half the size we are now and rank in the top 20, where today you’d be well beneath the threshold. Looking back even just 5 years, a Top 20 company in 2019 would not be ranked had they failed to achieve significant growth.
You can’t possibly make it if you experience customer churn, or if your customers don’t grow with you each year. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our customers who value us for the way we do things and allow us to partner with them in planning for their current needs and future growth opportunities.
Dane: Clearly customers play a huge role in the growth of Dane. Why do you think customers are drawn to Dane in a way that enables such rapid growth?
ML: An exceptional workforce underpinned by a relentless commitment to growth. I mentioned that this isn’t possible without delighting your customers consistently over the years, and you certainly can’t do that without exceptional employees. Everything at Dane Manufacturing starts with recruiting & investing in our people, and rallying them around the goals and growth we can achieve together.
Dane: How do you attract employees that will embrace the rapid change and growth?
ML: We intentionally seek to be an employer of choice in our geographic area. That starts with our culture which is very values driven and does require intentional investment. We invest in technical skills and development of course, but also in areas that contribute to our employee’s personal well-being. With that foundation in place, we set ambitious goals and rewards for achieving them, and the so-called magic takes care of itself.
Dane: With aggressive growth goals both for Dane, and its customers, does that lead to a number of operational challenges?
ML: Yes absolutely. Operationally, we have to constantly look for process improvements and ways to get more efficient. Our culture empowers our teams to constantly employ creative problem solving, and to embrace technology as a way to enable growth.
It also requires substantial amounts of machinery and capital to maintain such an aggressive growth rate. Over the past several years, we’ve made a number of significant investments to support the growth trajectory we are projecting for our customers. In 2018 we moved to a new campus with over 540,000 square feet of manufacturing space just so we had room for the growth. And last year was likely our most significant yet in terms of new machinery added, with the completion of our STOPA automation system.
Dane: I’d imagine technology and automation is a key part of your growth strategy?
ML: Well of course. Throughout our company we look for ways to improve, and embracing technology is a major piece of that. We utilize top-of-the-line equipment from the best brands in the world. By integrating them with our STOPA material handling system we gain numerous efficiencies and can run 4th shift, unattended production. Its helped us improve start times and gained efficiencies throughout production runs shortening lead times for customers.
Dane: How do all these things set you apart from other manufacturing companies?
ML: Well, we have a tendency to personalize more things at Dane Manufacturing, as opposed to institutionalizing things at most large companies. Personal relationships between employees, customers, and suppliers are the conduits of all kinds of information and value; I feel we are quite unique in leaning in to the personal elements of business vs. the tendency to anonymize things that naturally comes with high growth scales.
We have great processes that many people can execute, but by fielding the best team members we can find and develop, and having them execute their jobs as the capable and authentic human beings that they are, creates a loyalty and a value proposition that is very hard to match. Because of that, we become much more of an extension of our clients own business, than we act as a more nameless supplier.
Dane: So what does the future look like for Dane?
ML: That’s a great question! We don’t plan on leaving the Fab 40 anytime soon, that’s for sure. We are already forecasting growth trajectories and developing internal strategies for how we are going position ourselves for the expected growth. We also routinely meet with current customers to look well into their futures and forecast the needs of each of those relationships. Universally, they want to utilize Dane even more in their businesses, and as a result we have a number of capabilities and expansions planned to ensure we are positioned to deliver on that request and keep growing.
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