Over the years we have attended many trade shows; some we just walked and some we exhibited at. The one statement that I often hear is: “Yeah, we are looking at getting into custom design lifts just like you.” My “inside” voice says, “Great, let me hold the door open for you!”
The reality is that the custom-designed equipment business has pros and cons just like any other industry. The simplest way for me to explain myself is by way of our favourite saying: “Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.”
The fact is custom design work consumes you. You either thrive on it naturally or you reject it. This creates a challenge in that the labour pool is somewhat reduced because not everyone wants to live in a world of organized chaos.
Labour and skill is paramount in the world of “one offs.” The volume build model has some level of comfort in knowing that you spread your non-value added costs and/or engineering costs over multiple units. In the one-off custom world that one unit must absorb it all. There may be higher capital equipment expenditures in the volume-based manufacturing world but there is a higher labour cost in the low volume custom world. 
Additionally, long term planning in the custom world is very difficult. We don’t always know what we will be building, how we are going to build it, who do we need in order to build it and so on. With a volume build platform, the challenge is in keeping that cap-ex equipment working as much as possible. If those machines aren’t working then you are not making money. These are just some of the pros and cons of custom designed low volume versus standard or high volume manufacturing.
The one thing that sticks out most for me as I compare custom versus standard is the stimulating and rewarding world of custom work. Yes, it takes a lot out of you. You really don’t become wise and experienced until you have failed dozens of times, but it seems to attract some of the most talented people I have ever met.
When you are able to get all of this talent believing in each other and supporting each other, you can build a very successful and sustainable business. I think this is one of the most unrealized “pros” of the custom engineered-to-order world.
At Handling Specialty….talent and courage = success…..and I can prove it!!
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