Supporting Our Customers Is A Key Priority.
What's coming up for IMTS 2012
If you goto IMTS.com it shows that there is 115 days until IMTS arrives. For most people when July or August rolls around you start to make reservations or plan your visit. At Royal Master we have begun in earnest to start building equipment for the show, and engineering a lot of new and cool stuff. We are planning on 7 machines, each having something new on it. We are bringing our Bedrock System, Gen X, a couple of TG-12×4’s and a Robotic System.
We will also be bringing two new engineers to the show. Jesse and Brian started with us about 9 months ago and are experiencing their first IMTS. When we explain the magnitude of the show to them, they gloss over. Jesse is a recent graduate from NJIT and Brian comes from a different industry. They have experienced and MDM West with us in February. MDM is half of everything that IMTS is, but IMTS is just a totally different beast. We are curious to see their reaction after they walk around.
If you followed our blog since it came about 2 years ago I talk about a lot of different topics. Some of them are grinding related, others are not even close. Regardless I appreciate everyone who visits it and calls me to have a laugh or a “yea I hate that too” conversation. Believe it or not I have had a number of calls about the coffee incident.
Stop back often this summer and fall for updates about RMG and updates for the show.
John
The Mazak is here and a lot of other good Stuff
Is been a crazy few weeks since my last blog entry, however we have not been sitting idle. Finally our new Mazak Nexus 6800 Arrived on Monday and it is currently being installed. It took a good long day to get everything moved in, and our Mazak engineer is working diligently to level the machine, and hook everything up, our goal is to make a part in a week. It was unfortunate that John Sr was not at RMG this past week as he is away, however to be honest, he probably got tired of the 56 photo text messages that I sent him of the progress that day. The most stressful point in the day was them squeezing it through the bay door. With less than 4” on each side of the machine and less than 12” on the top, our Rigger made it fit without even having to get a running start.
I also had a really cool experience with Embassy Suites Hotel Chain. After coming back from the MDM West show, I got talking with Bob Hoffman who is a serious coffee lover. And we got talking about the lack of good coffee at not only the Anaheim property, but at their Chicago property where we stay for IMTS every two years. We love their hotels, and their two room suites, but their coffee just stinks. It tastes like cardboard, and it can take lessons from even the worst truck-stop brand.
I decided to call the customer service line and see what happens. After being on hold for 7:46 seconds, I met a representative.. She took my information including the “complaint” and told me the property manager would get back to me in three days. The classic brush-off I figured.
Nope. I got an e-mail from the manager thanking me for my input and that they would bring it up at the next property review meeting. The next day ( day #3) I got an e-mail from the customer service line representative making sure that my issue was addressed, and informing me that there was now a credit in my Holton Honors account. Figuring that this would be a good opportunity to Bring up Chicago’s bad coffee, I did and I Have had the same positive responses. Kudos to Hilton and their customer service for caring. I will find out if they did anything ...
A little about RMG
We recently had a customer come to our company and notice our little construction project in the shop. It looked a lot nicer than it did a few weeks ago on my last blog entry as we have poured the concrete and it looks like wea re expecting a really big machine. The customer asked us if we did everything ourselves to prepare for the machine, and proudly answering “yes”. He then asked why? The answer “ because its fun”
We have the concrete poured with a small addition, four handprints. The Handprints, three generations of Memmelaar’s, are now embedded in the concrete at Royal Master. This is really kind of cool for a lot of reasons. Running Royal Master has always been the same family lineage since 1950. Growing up, it was a part of daily conversation, what projects there was, tradeshows that were upcoming, My father going on the road and visiting customers, was normal conversation for our dinner table. My mother held it all together in those years as my father grew the business, making it what it is today.
As we wound down the Machining center that we are replacing, the K&T as it was known as, became a all consuming part of my household life, and my father’s also. In an attempt to stockpile enough parts to get us through two months of downtime, we would run 7 days per week for 5 months. As the pallet train was unreliable, Rich Fletcher and myself would set up a long running job usually about 2.5 hour run for the weekend, and off we would go. I would usually go back every 3 hours on the weekend to change parts, sometimes even on the way to “date night” with my wife to get out one last part.
During the day on Saturday and Sunday, my two daughters would take turns going back to the shop with me. The big machine fascinated them, and making it run was the part they loved the most. Both daughters would help change the parts, and my youngest loved to press the button sequence to make it run another cycle, my oldest loved the fact that the 2” insert end mill looked like a disco ball, and we had to wait for it sometimes to engage the part so she could say over and over, “cool”
The day we took the machine ...
Whats new since 2011!
Royal Master is closing out 2011 as our best year ever. We had many great projects for both the medical and non-medical industry as well as being introduced to a few new industries. We want to thanks all of our customers who have made this possible and we look forward to another productive year in 2012.
Starting out 2012 we have plenty to do. We start off with the receipt of a new Horizontal machining center. We retired our old Giddings and Lewis Orion and purchased a new Mazak Nexus 6800 with a 12 pallet system and 160 tool changer. We will be receiving this machine in February. To get prepared for it we are having a blast cutting concrete, as well as John Sr digging out the foundation for it. In another week or so we will be pouring the foundation.
We also have the MDM West show in California where we will be introducing new features to all of our existing products that we will be displaying. We will Have the Gen X machine, NEW Laser Gauge system, Enhanced Servo Cycle System, and our Spool to Spool system. All will be grinding product and will be available for personal demonstrations prior to the show’s opening every day
After MDM West we will be gearing up for IMTS in Chicago. We will have our same booth location with plenty of really neat new products and new accessories. We will be discussing this more in detail as the time gets closer.
Once again, thank you for your business and feel free to call or e-mail us anytime. 201-337-8500 or johnjr@royalmaster.com
