Case Study – OpEX Supports Scalable Growth for Precision Metal Holdings
Case Study: Precision Metal Holdings
OpEX enables scalable growth across multiple manufacturing operations.
Challenge
Five years ago, Erik Welak and his investment partners acquired Accurate Fabrication and General Metals. The potential for growth was clear, but the operational visibility was anything but.
Having spent 24 years at a large, sophisticated manufacturing organization, eventually as Executive Vice President of Operations for a $500 million company with 26 locations, Welak found himself adjusting to leading two businesses with no ERP system, relying on spreadsheets.
The challenge became even more clear after a conversation with the previous owner.
I asked the prior owner how he knew if a part number was making money. He laughed and said, ‘I don’t. If there’s money in my checking account at the end of the month, I had a good month.
With ambitious growth goals in mind, the company needed a new approach. Precision Metal Holdings was preparing to scale from approximately $40 million in annual revenue to more than $100 million, driven largely by demand from data center customers and an automation-first scaling strategy.
To achieve that growth without losing control of operations, leadership needed real-time visibility into what was happening across both facilities, including:
- Capacity across both facilities
- Production bottlenecks
- Job-level performance
- Part-level profitability
- Operational trends across both facilities
Most importantly, he needed information that would allow his leadership team to identify issues before they impacted delivery, margins, or customer satisfaction.
Solution
Within three months, the OpEX team integrated data from multiple systems into a dashboard environment that provided actionable insights on all aspects of the business. Instead of relying on spreadsheets and assumptions, leadership gained access to real-time operational metrics that helped them understand exactly what was happening on the shop floor.
Results
Today, OpEX serves as a critical management tool. Rather than relying on spreadsheets or assumptions, leadership now has visibility into the metrics that drive day-to-day performance and strategic growth.
When asked about the single most valuable outcome from OpEX, Welak pointed to capacity visibility across work centers down to part number and job level — the foundation for scaling from $40M to $100M without losing control.
Using OpEX, leadership can monitor capacity across work centers, jobs, and even individual part numbers. That visibility helps identify bottlenecks, allocate resources more effectively, and make data-driven decisions about production.
For Welak, OpEX has become a critical aspect of day-to-day business.
“Taking OpEX away from the CEO is like taking the cell phone out of a teenager’s hand. I can’t operate without it. I literally look at it every day.”
- Supporting a growth trajectory from $40 million to more than $100 million in annual revenue
- Visibility across two manufacturing facilities operating on different ERP systems
- Capacity planning by work center, job, and part number
- Accurate operational reporting with regular data refreshes
- Reduced dependency on spreadsheets and manual reporting
- Faster, more informed decision-making
- Greater operational control during growth
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