My name is Chad Fifield. I am the owner of Powder Coating Technologies, located in Plymouth, Minnesota. Powder Coating Technologies is an industrial coater with 30-plus years of experience serving the greater metro area of the Twin Cities. We specialize in short production runs of heavy, bulky metals.
In the industrial sector, customers come to Powder Coating Technologies for our reputation in quality that has been earned over a period of 30-plus years. It's a part of our culture, and we insist on high standards here.
The second reason I would highlight is our capabilities. Practically speaking, we have the largest curing oven in the greater Twin Cities metro area. And last but not least, our lead times. Our lead times are short. That is one benefit of utilizing Steelhead. We can measure them now, and no longer is it a hope that we can meet lead times—we know what they are and can plan around them.
Why did I decide to transition to Steelhead? Upon buying the business seven months ago, I came from a background at Amazon where automation, technology, and software were deeply embedded. Coming into this role, there was a clear lack of that. It was very difficult for me to understand what parts I had, where they were, and whether we were winning or losing from an efficiency standpoint—both administratively in the front office and operationally on the shop floor. Having to go from filing cabinet to filing cabinet to put together the picture was essentially impossible.
From a customer experience perspective, this has become non-negotiable. Steelhead has streamlined our ability to communicate accurately and in a timely manner with our customers—and that’s what they expect.
I'm Matt Ddy, and I'm the production manager here at Powder Coating Technologies. I would equate it to going from using a hammer and chisel on a stone tablet to using an iPhone. I can just put the information into Steelhead, into the template, and it produces it in such a way that the customer can open it up, look at it five minutes later, and know exactly what's going on. They know whether they want to move forward with us or not.
Hi, I'm Adam Grossi. I've been here for five months now. I work in the shipping and outsourcing part of the warehouse. It took me about five minutes to learn how to use Steelhead. I simply move parts, rack them, un-rack them, and get them ready for shipping.
We send out emails through Steelhead, contact customers, and handle any other details we need—everything is right here. I learned the system in five minutes and basically became an expert. Other systems I’ve worked with took six months of training just to use, like at Excel Energy, and that was a bit much for me. But this is awesome.
Honestly, I’ve saved about 25% of my day. Everything I need is at my fingertips. Instead of having to physically leave the office to check the status of something or the inventory level of a certain powder, all of that can now be done through Steelhead. It’s all centrally located. Ease of operation is by far my favorite part.
My favorite part about Steelhead is the end-to-end visibility I have over my business—both at a high level and with the ability to drill down into the more detailed parts of what's happening on the shop floor day to day.
I'm Matt with Powder Coating Technologies, and our shop runs on Steelhead.