Joe Lendway knows a thing or two about the importance of maintaining quality in a full-scale operation—and therefore the importance of budgeting for it. Lendway is the quality manager at Top Tool, a manufacturer of precision metal stamping components whose high standards earned it 2013’s Quality Plant of the Year award.
The Minneapolis-based company is relatively small, but it utilizes an equipment budgeting process that transcends size: The company starts with pinpointing where its equipment can be improved; identifying sources and equipment operations to address the needs; selecting a source for the equipment; performing Return on Investment (ROI) calculations to support the purchase of the equipment; and presenting this information to top management for funding.