"Take the job," was the response of a British supplier to a large American jet-engine manufacturer. This 50-person organization was asked to manufacture and warranty cylindrical gears for the aerospace manufacturer. Because orders from the manufacturer represented 30% of the shop's business, saying no was difficult. Management decided to accept the job to avoid losing the customer's confidence and the rest of its work.
"The shop wanted to prove that it could provide service," says Gary Hobart, general manager for the United Kingdom operation of CEJohansson (Irvine, CA), and the coordinate-measuring machine (CMM) builder that helped the shop offer it. "The difficulty was that the shop had never manufactured gears before. The whole gear world revolves around tables and data sheets, which can be a complex problem for the occasional manufacturer who can't go to a gear specialist."