The staff at Seminole Metal Finishing in Altamonte Springs, Florida, have a philosophy: why take five days to get the job done when four will do just fine?
Elliott BlackwelderThe team works four 10-hour days Monday through Friday, reserving the last day of the week for any overtime that may be needed or expedited work that just can’t wait, which is a rarity, according to President and Owner Elliott Blackwelder.
“My team talked me into the four-day week many years ago, and it actually works pretty well for us,” he says. “We have 16 people now, and it has held pretty steady.”
In fact, while other parts of the country have seen labor issues almost bring production to a halt at many finishing operations, Seminole has lost just one employee over the last few years, Blackwelder says, although if work picks up, they do bring in temps.
“We try to avoid using temps when we can as every job requires a certain amount of training and Temps typically require more supervision,” he says. “We’ve just been going along fairly steady, and we’ve all been keeping pretty busy.”
Providing Various Coatings to Defense and Other Industries
Seminole provides black oxide coating, zinc plating, electroless nickel plating, hydrogen embrittlement relief, bright nickel plating, and passivation to its many customers. They have been approved by Lockheed Martin for black oxide on steel and stainless steel, zinc, mid-phosphorus electroless nickel, and passivation.
Blackwelder first opened Seminole’s doors in 1987. He remains president of the company but now works with his son Jonathan in the hopes of turning over the company to him in the future. Their facility was custom built as an electroplating facility and has been their home since 1993.
Blackwelder got his start in the finishing industry while attending college when he took a job at an Orlando area plating shop as a line worker. “I was a business major, so I didn’t really know anything about the plating industry,” Blackwelder says. “But it was a great job because I was working until 3:30 PM., then I was able to go home, shower and go to school.”
Shortly after he was married, he was promoted to 2nd shift Manager. He worked in this position for a couple of years. During this time he learned more about the various plating operations and worked in the chemistry lab. Eventually he also went to the AESF certification program and passed the CEF exam.
Blackwelder eventually went to the shop’s ownership and asked to be moved to the first shift to have more normal hours that would be more conducive to family life. Once moved to first shift, he was put in charge of chemical purchasing, oversaw wastewater treatment and the chemistry lab.
Over time, Blackwelder began to think about his career and whether he wanted to be a salaried employee or if he wanted to be an owner of a company.
“There comes the point when you feel like you are just marking time, and you think you are doing all the right things,” he says. “It got to where I just felt that if I was going to work this hard, then I am going to do it for myself.”
Opened Small, Three-Man Finishing Shop
Blackwelder, with the encouragement of an uncle who was a major influence in his decision, started Seminole Metal Finishing as a small three-man finishing shop, performing black oxide and then adding bright and electroless nickel, passivation, and zinc. Overtime custom chrome plating and polishing was added.
While the shop was continuing to grow doing their original plating processes, the outbreak of the first Gulf War in 1991 brought them additional work from several Florida-based military contractors, including Lockheed Martin.
“We had essentially as much work as we wanted,” Blackwelder says. “That’s when I decided to get out of the custom work. The commercial and military jobs were clearly the direction we wanted to go, even though it was more technical for us.”
Aside from the growth in the military and defense contractors, Seminole also started picking up more work from many of the nearby Orlando attractions, focusing on the theme park’s continuous maintenance programs that called for re-plating the many components, such as door latches, roller coaster axles, braking systems as well as many others.
Retaining Longtime Employees
Jimmy Green is Seminole’s plant manager and has been with the company for 17 years. Longevity seems to be a trait among the workers — Ron Wambles, the shop assistant manager, clocks in at 29 years with Seminole. The average length of service for SMFI Team members is 14 years — and a lot has to do with Blackwelder having a “work to live, don’t live to work” attitude. Family is always first.
“We really love that 4-10 set up we have,” he says. “Those are long days, but we all enjoy the three day weekends.”
Aside from his son, Jonathan, working at the facility, Blackwelder’s wife Carla also serves as Vice President running the administration and billing side. Jessica Crespo is the Office Manager who started as a part-time secretary while attending college and soon graduated with a business and master’s degree.
“Jessica can rattle off customer specifications off the top of her head,” Blackwelder says. “She is so immersed in what we do, and I can just never remember those types of details as well as she does, but she knows it all very well.”
We are all looking forward to the next 35 years.
Visit https://www.smfi.net
