Do you need to know machining to run a machining business?
Gary Box knows chickens instead. At age 54, he left poultry farming, looking for a different business he could lead and grow alongside his family.
He found Graco Corporation, a producer of firearms components. The previous owner wanted to sell. He, his wife, and Gary and his wife Denise all clicked. The Boxes bought a machine shop, though Gary had not previously known what a machine tool was before learning about Graco. Certainly he had never run or programmed one.
But Graco had, and still has, a capable team. Gary’s first task was therefore humility. He sent about earning their trust, spending time with team members on the shop floor every day.
Gary even took on the responsibility for the black oxide process, a finishing operation that is perhaps the dirtiest part of the shop’s work.
Under the Box stewardship, Graco is growing. On Graco’s shop floor, I sat to talk with Gary in front of the shop’s recent purchase, a new vertical machining center.
The contrast between chickens and CNC is striking—just this much makes Gary’s story compelling. But there is a larger point. Machining, programming and engineering are adjacent skills to running a successful business, but they are not the core skills needed. Indeed, a great machinist could prove to be a hapless machine shop owner. Something different is needed, and part of the talent we should be eager to welcome into manufacturing is talent for overseeing its enterprises. However, part of that talent finding welcome is having the right mindset and attitude for stepping in.
Watch my conversation with Gary Box (and see footage of Gary doing black oxide) in this episode of The Z Axis: