Ameristar Fence Products Featured in Manufacturing

MADE IN AMERICA
Ameristar Fence Products Inc. / www.ameristarfence.com / Annual revenues: $160 million / Headquarters: Tulsa, Okla. / Employees:
Approx. 600 / Specialty: Security fences / Mark Meek, president: “We start with raw steel and we ship a product that is ready to be installed.”
‘Speed of
Business’
ameristar is a leader in the
global fence manufacturing
market. by staci davidson
Eddy Gibbs, owner of Ameristar
Fence Products Inc., is so proud of the
Tulsa, Okla.-based company’s “speed
of business” model that he has “SPDOFBZ” on his license plate. With a
focus on lean manufacturing and Six
Sigma principles, as well as a dedicated workforce, Ameristar uses the fast
pace of its operation and extensive inhouse capabilities to provide a competitive price point. This is just one
reason why it has become the largest
ornamental fence manufacturer in
the world.
It was Gibbs’ innovation and dedication to quality that led to Ameristar’s
inception, according to President
Mark Meek. Gibbs started out as the
owner of a fence installation business
in the 1970s and, at that time, most
fences were made of wood or chain
link. “He thought all of the gate hardware available at the time was poor
quality,” Meek says. So, Gibbs bought
an old stamping press, designed new
hardware and patented it himself. He
would stamp enough pieces to fill his
pickup truck, travel around for two or
three days selling his wares, and when
he was sold out, he’d return home to
fill up his truck again.
“Word got out, and fence contractors wanted his products,” Meek
explains. “After about $6 million in
sales, he maxed out with the hardware,
so he started with ornamental fences,
and that business really took off.”
Gibbs’s goal when he started, Meek
says, was to enhance the appearance
of modern fence products, while also
improving ease of installation,
strength and durability. This is what
manufacturing-today.com FALL 2012
ameristar fence products
performs all of its
manufacturing from its
facility in tulsa, okla.
attracted fence contractors – superior quality of products and ease of
installation enhanced the contractors’ profitability. He says Ameristar
is now known for producing the highest-quality high-end security, industrial, commercial and residential
fences in the market, and it consistently delivers this high level of quality by controlling its manufacturing
processes. In fact, Ameristar is the
only architectural metal fencing manufacturer in America to control all of
its quality criteria from the receipt of
raw material to the completion of finished product, all within its own facilities. Additionally, most Ameristar
fence products are produced from
recycled steel which qualifies for
LEED points.
“All of our manufacturing is done in
Tulsa,” Meek says. “The company
started with 100,000 square feet of
production space, but today we have 1
million square feet of environmentally friendly space. We bring in raw,
46,000-pound coils of steel and slit it
ourselves, send it through our own
tube mills, roll formers, robotic
welders and three coating lines – two
powder and one e-coat. We start with
raw steel and we ship a finished product that is ready to be installed.”
Far Ahead of the Competition
Ameristar’s speed-of-business and
six sigma principles helps it maintain
a high level of efficiency, as well as
quality. Meek explains that some
products can go “from raw to finished
in the same day,” while anything in
stock will ship within three days. For
special orders, Ameristar only needs a
10-day lead time. To ensure its inventory is well stocked, he says, the company will run large volumes for a couple days at a time. Additionally, it was
the company’s focus on quality that
brought about the creation of the
speed-of-business model.
“Eddy Gibbs was looking at our
operation to see how we could do
everything better, faster and with
better quality,” Meek says. “On our
FALL 2012 manufacturing-today.com
MADE IN AMERICA | Ameristar Fence Products Inc.
ameristar’s management
team emphasizes the use of
lean manufacturing and six
sigma principles.
Montage line, for example, there
was some automated welding equipment available that could produce 10
8-foot welded fence panels in an
hour, but Eddy thought it could be
better.
“He toured an automotive facility
in Detroit and hired a robotic engineer from the automotive industry to
make new robotics for our plant,” he
continues. “Now, our machines can
do 120 panels in an hour, while no
competitor can do anything faster
than 10 to 12 panels an hour.
“we’ve done well with
perimeter security needs
with our fence products
and gates, but our goal is to
provide the entire perimeter
security package.” -Mark Meek
manufacturing-today.com FALL 2012
“Additionally, we’d always had
powder coating, but Detroit was
using e-coat. E-coat covers everything and coats three times more area
than a powder-coat line. Powder coat
is excellent, but it doesn’t get underneath or in the nooks and cracks. We
made about a $20 million investment
in e-coat, and have been e-coating for
more than six years. No other U.S.
competitor has gone to e-coat.”
Securing Perimeters
With the company’s size and capabilities, it has weathered the recession fairly well, although its residential business dropped because “residential construction was hammered,” Meek says. Residential represents only 25 percent of
Ameristar’s business, however, and
the company has spent the last few
years hiring more people so it could
expand into other industries.
Ameristar is focused on security –
providing security fencing to military
bases, government facilities, schools,
banks or “anywhere that might have
any type of threat,” Meek notes. Many
of its competitors don’t have the size
to expand into a market like this, but
Ameristar is using its capabilities to
ensure it serves security clients with
the same level of quality that it provides to any other market.
“We’ve worked hard to get the
product specifications to meet the
needs of the security market, and
we’re doing more than 1,000 architectural presentations a year,” he
says. “We’ve done well with perimeter security needs with our fence
products and gates, but our goal is to
provide the entire perimeter security
package. Last year we purchased the
North American division of the
British firm ATG Access, which
makes bollards and other vehicle bar-
MADE IN AMERICA
already a leader in perimeter
security, ameristar says it
wants to be a full-service
security solutions provider.
riers that are designed to stop various vehicle types traveling at a
variety of speeds. We’re also looking into potential acquisitions
to expand into all perimeter security products, such as turnstiles, gate operators and guard booths. Crash-rated gates also
are important in this market, and we may acquire a company
that makes those or develop our own.”
Meek says there is a significant barrier to entry in the crashrated niche of the fence market. “It’s about $75,000 per crash
test, and we’ve done over 14 tests so far,” he explains.
“Our ultimate goal is to provide the complete perimeter security package,” he continues. “We’ve targeted specifying our
architectural products in this market because large companies
want to protect their properties. They will be looking for the
entire package, but right now they need about seven to eight
companies to get everything they need. Our goal is to be a onestop shop within the next few years.” mt
PPG Industries, a leading manufacturer of pretreatment products and coatings for ornamental and architectural metals, is proud of its long-standing relationship with Ameristar Fence.
As a manufacturer of premium ornamental metal fencing, Ameristar Fence relies on PPG pretreatments and coatings to enable its products to maintain their showroom color and gloss year
after year in every type of climate. Zinc-phosphate pretreatments and electrocoat primers from
PPG enhance coating adhesion to the base metal substrate and protect it from premature corrosion, while its electrocoat topcoat finish delivers an attractive, durable high-gloss appearance.
For more information, call 888-774-2001 or visit www.ppgindustrialcoatings.com.
Published by Phoenix Media Corporation Tel: 312.676.1101 Fax: 312.676.1280
On behalf of Ameristar Fence Products Inc. © 2012 Phoenix Media Corporation. All rights reserved.
www.ameristarfence.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 888.333.3422
Fax: 877.926.3747