Customer Profile:

Palmetto Plating Company in South Carolina, is a family-owned and operated company providing metal finishing services for various industries including medical equipment and components, food equipment, automotive trim, electrical equipment, textile machinery, and aircraft components. John Cutchin founded the company 60 years ago and still goes into the office every day to stay connected to his clients and employees. His son, Hunter Cutchin, has taken over as president, ensuring that the company remains committed to providing unique and consistent metal finishing services while being a good steward of the community.

Situation:

In the past, more than 50% of Palmetto’s business was related to the textile industry. Now that most of that industry has gone overseas, they needed help to figure out how to gain new customers, increase productivity without sacrificing timeliness, streamline operations, and identify new, sustainable markets where they can be impactful.

Hunter heard about the Southeastern Trade Adjustment Assistance Center (SETAAC) program, a federally funded program housed out of Georgia Tech that provides matching assistance funds to firms experiencing declines due to import competition, and reached out to Harry Bagwell, SETAAC program manager. Bagwell was instrumental in explaining how the program works and how it can benefit a manufacturing facility like Palmetto Plating.

Solution:

After gaining new business by working with SETAAC, Palmetto Plating knew they needed to improve the efficiency of their main production line, so Bagwell helped them to re-draw their layout making their production more streamlined, less costly, and less time consuming. This led to an increase in production capacity and revenue as sales increased.

Through the leadership of Cutchin, and the matching funds from SETAAC, Palmetto has also been able to make improvements to their ISO audits (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and AS 9100 Quality Management Systems) and has become aerospace certified. This, in turn, has given them the ability to do more technical work for manufacturing companies that require these certifications.

Palmetto has been working with SETAAC for more than five years and continues to make improvements that allow them to grow their business. They are currently the sole provider for a medical industry supplier of electrical wires for pacemaker defibrillators, who was operating at an 80% scrape rate. But Palmetto was able to remove impurities from the wire that connects to the battery, increasing their success rate to 85%.

Bagwell has also helped them plan, design, install, and train operators for a new ventilation and air scrubber system for a new electroless nickel processing line. This has resulted in better working conditions for employees and protection for the environment by reducing rust and wear and tear on their product.

Teresa Stockton, SETAAC client development specialist, also helped Palmetto become a qualified vendor for SETAAC so that other companies can use their services.

“Without the help of SETAAC we would have not been able to do what we have done… prosper. Our business is in a solid place, and our future is bright with new business opportunities. I recommend this program to others in our industry all the time,” John Cutchin, Palmetto Plating founder.

Results:

Through the matching assistance funds Palmetto Plating has:

• Been able to expand on investments that will improve the quality and safety of their production lines.
• Improved their environmental footprint by providing more ISO training for their employees.
• Put systems in place to improve client retention and expand business development, gaining new clients that range from small businesses to state of the art of machine shops.
• Been awarded a 2-year DOE project for applying coating to aluminum components.
• Steadily increased sales over the past 3 years.
• Hired five new employees.

About SETAAC

The Southeastern Trade Adjustment Assistance Center (SETAAC), a federally funded program, housed out of the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2) at Georgia Institute of Technology, is supported by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, and provides matching assistance funds to firms experiencing declines due to import competition.