Long-Time Member Examines PMPA Benefits

Fairchild Auto-Mated Parts Inc., founded in 1944, crafts precision machined parts for North American companies. Fairchild has become an integral part of many industry-leading manufacturers’ supply chains by partnering with its customers to find new ways to improve part performance, increase product life and decrease costs.

“Our engineering staff helps our customers with their product designs, product improvement and new product development,” says Jake Thompson, president of Fairchild Auto-Mated Parts. “Our staff even assists with product testing, which has led to Fairchild developing more complete assemblies for our customers.”

Fairchild serves customers in a variety of markets including defense, aerospace, HVAC, musical instruments and precision testing equipment. The company is able to serve a range of markets largely due to diversified capabilities. Fairchild offers custom CNC screw machine parts, complex Swiss CNC turning services, CNC turning and milling services, as well as mechanical contract assembly utilizing both conventional screw machines along with state-of-the-art, multi-axis CNC turning equipment.

Fairchild joined PMPA in 1946, 2 years after its founding, and has maintained its membership ever since.

“PMPA is a dynamic association, and we continue to have a long and productive relationship with them. The benefits of membership and the depth of the association’s resources helps our business continually evolve,” Mr. Thompson explains. “It’s difficult to identify just one area where Fairchild finds the most benefit from membership.”

Mr. Thompson highlighted networking opportunities on the local and regional levels, shows, meetings, listserves and technical resources as membership benefits that Fairchild regularly takes advantage of.

“Networking with other members, which includes the listserves and attendance at national meetings and technical shows certainly rank among the highest on our list of benefits,” Mr. Thompson says. “In addition, as a technical resource, the staff at PMPA has proven to be extremely helpful, in a timely way, in providing answers. They come up with solutions to what would otherwise be complicated issues, whether they are regulatory, competitive or global in nature. We find that if there is a situation we need to dig deeper into, someone at PMPA has already done that research to get us started on finding the right answers.”

One of the more recent membership benefits to Fairchild that Mr. Thompson identified is the global picture of the industry the PMPA provides through its international relationships.

“More recently, PMPA has offered us a very clear window to the global precision machining scene,” Mr. Thompson says. “The opportunity to see the European and Asian markets in our industry gives us a better awareness and understanding of the interplay of our business at Fairchild with our customers who serve global markets.”

Mr. Thompson traveled with a group of PMPA members and administrators to a meeting of the European counterpart of PMPA in Switzerland in September 2012.

“We toured watch-making factories, Swiss machine tool builders, trade schools and other contract manufacturers in Switzerland. It was an incredibly valuable experience, that without our PMPA membership, we would not have been able to do,” Mr. Thompson summarizes. “Our 67-year association with PMPA has been an enjoyable, productive and rewarding experience.”

Fairchild Auto-Mated Parts Inc. is located at 10 White Street, Winsted, Conn. 06098. Phone: 800-927-2545.
Website: fairchildparts.com.