Ten years ago, Tracy Boetsma and James Davis took a chance on owning their own finishing operation and named it Highpoint Finishing Solutions in Zeeland, Michigan.
The Highpoint Finishing Solutions’ management includes, from left to right, James Davis, CFO; Mike Biesbrock, Sales Manager; Teresa Gutierrez, Human Resources; Tracy Boetsma, President; and JT Wyrick, Process Development.So far, it seems they haven’t yet reached the apex of growing their buffing and polishing business, which includes polish and bright buff for anodize or electroplate, polish/deburr for paint, satin/brush finish for anodize or electroplate, custom and production machining, as well as custom polish and buff work.
Highpoint runs three shifts with 95 employees, but Boetsma and Davis say they would hire 15-20 more employees if they could to handle additional work they could bring in.
“As manufacturing cycles through outsourcing and insourcing, we need to stay on the forefront of what customer’s needs are,” Boetsma says. “The current trend calls for offering one-stop shopping with supply chain management.”
Managing Additional Manufacturing Processes
To the end, Highpoint offers to manage any additional manufacturing processes for its customers, whether that be light assembly, anodizing, chrome plating, powder coating, shot blasting, or mechanical finishing.
“Instead of customers trying to manage multiple suppliers, we will do that for them with one point of contact,” says Davis, whose company added a machining division a few years after opening.
It was back in 2011 when Boetsma and Davis — who already had many years of experience in the metal finishing, electroplating, and machining industries — purchased the assets of what used to be known as Borculo Polishing.
They started with roughly 30 employees in a 40,000 square foot facility and quickly saw tremendous growth, at one point growing to over 150 employees and 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space between all of their locations.
High-Production, High-Quality Parts
They specialized in high-production, high-quality parts, although they do have the capability to run small custom batches of parts as well. They currently run programs with hundreds of thousands of parts, in addition to single custom parts. Their system can handle some parts over 10 feet in length.
While one of their original projects, when they took over the company, was door handles of Whirlpool stainless steel appliances, they have expanded their industry offerings to include automotive, appliance, heavy-duty truck/trailer, motorcycle, office furniture, hand tools, and the boating industries.
Boetsma says their success is based on doing “what is fair and what is right.”
“If you base your decisions on that, it takes care of your customers, your vendors, your employees, and your business,” he says. “We really try to be an extension of our customers and anticipate their individual needs. Then we do everything we can to fulfill those needs and make doing business with us an easy decision.”
Davis concurs that if you do things right, people will hear about it, and companies will come knocking.
Word-Of-Mouth Advertising
“Word-of-mouth advertising goes a long way in the industry,” he says. They also maintain a newly-updated website and send out target mailings with their company’s brochure, but Davis says in the last year, they put a freeze on the technical conferences they attended and other trade shows.
Highpoint did add two robotic cells over the last few years, as well as production machining centers. Boetsma says they build most of their own finishing lines and equipment specifically for programs they are awarded.
“We have been advertising and selling program management that would include other finishing services that are not performed here, such as anodizing,” he says.
For example, Highpoint has a customer who deals in tow hooks in the automotive sector. The manufacturing process for the Highpoint team includes:
- Receive steel forgings from the customer.
- CNC Work: The part gets loaded into a CNC machine where they machine the raw material away to give the tow hook its clean, desired shape while following tolerance specs from prints.
- Polish/Buff: The parts then get polished to a finer grit before they get sent onto buff. Highpoint buff the tow hooks on one of our eight automated buffing lines.
- Plating: Once the buffing is complete, the parts go out to be chrome plated.
‘Great Management Team’
Highpoint Finishing Solutions’ owners say they are blessed to have a great management team that keeps both customers and employees happy. Mike Biesbrock is Sales Manager, Yoel Alvarez is the Operations Manager, Josh Merryman is Quality Manager, Teresa Gutierrez is the HR Manager, and J.T. Wyrick handles Process Development.
“As owners, we have surrounded ourselves with a great team,” Davis says. “We truly appreciate all our employees and try to show them that with monthly employee appreciation lunches, recognizing employees of the month, seasonal activities as well as other ways of thanking them for their hard work making HFS a success.”
