Where Machining Precision is a Family Tradition

In 1923, Claude Knuepfer founded General Engineering Works and was a founding member of the National Screw Machine Products Association, which would later evolve to become the Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA). General Engineering Works was the inspiration for DuPage Machine Products (DMP), a company that has spent just more than a century demonstrating how a progressive culture paves the way for success.

“There are really two keys to our success,” says Dave Knuepfer, DMP’s third-generation president/CEO. “First, we’ve always embraced the latest technology. Second, we’ve always adapted to our customers’ demands. Some manufacturers are really good at doing something, but then get stuck on it and do not adapt to changing times. We never want to be that organization. We are always moving forward.”

This mindset has created a culture that anticipates change and proactively moves to intercept it. Today, DMP makes parts that are far more complex than it previously produced even a decade ago. It balances orders of all sizes, making it a preferred partner for customers seeking flexibility.  It has invested in its own capabilities to maximize its responsiveness.

In short, it kept moving forward.

An Industry in Microcosm

Throughout DMP’s history, the Bloomingdale, Illinois-based company has been intimately entwined with the precision manufactured products industry as a whole. DMP has been heavily involved in the PMPA, as part of its approach to refining and bettering the company in every aspect. In addition to the two organizations sharing a founder, DMP’s second-generation owner/CEO, Robert Knuepfer, and third-generation president/CEO, Dave Knuepfer, both served terms as PMPA president. The three generations of Claude, Robert and Dave also received the industry’s most prestigious award, the McGinnis Merit Award. The family’s fourth generation has also been engaged with PMPA through the efforts of Dave Knuepfer, Jr. and Bill Knuepfer.

In retrospect, DMP’s history often looks like a mirror of the industry’s, though the company has typically been on the side of early adoption when it comes to new technologies and processes. Manual machines gave way to their cam-driven counterparts, first single-spindle machines and then multi-spindles. CNCs followed, and the company’s current era has been largely defined by the impact of advanced CNC lathes and multi-spindles. The latter, in particular, have been instrumental in enabling continued growth over the past two decades.

“We initially struggled a bit with the decision to purchase a CNC multi-spindle,” Dave says. “At that time, the technology was still at the point where, to be profitable with it, you needed to run more sophisticated and complex parts. In 2002, although we did not have parts that justified a CNC multi-spindle, we decided to take a leap a faith and purchased an Index machine, believing that the work would come.”

Investing in the Virtuous Cycle

The acquisition of an Index CNC multi-spindle quickly yielded dividends. DMP was awarded jobs that required higher part quantities. Additionally, the company’s customers experienced their own growth, and DMP was in a position to meet their increased demand.

“We have customers that were giving us 5,000-piece part orders that are now 50,000-piece orders,” says Bill Knuepfer, DMP sales manager. “That increased capability has become a huge part of our success over the past two decades. We’re able to efficiently and profitably tackle jobs that range from 300-piece one-offs to ongoing annual orders between 1.3 and 1.6 million pieces.”

Today, DMP has 18 Index CNC multi-spindles on its shop floor, with bar diameter capacities ranging from 22-52 mm. The precision, accuracy and repeatability of the machines has helped the company further fuel its growth by taking on much more challenging, complex parts.

“You take a part that’s typical to us today, say a hydraulic component for one of our customers,” says Dave Knuepfer, Jr., DMP vice president of operations. “We might have up to 200 dimensions, while holding OD tolerances of 0.001" and ID tolerances of ±0.0003". We couldn’t profitably produce that type of part in a single operation, without our Index multi-spindles.”

This type of virtuous cycle, investing in technology to fuel growth that then funds further investment, is a common refrain throughout DMP’s history. As an example, the company established its own internal toolroom in the 1990’s to produce form tools for its cam-driven machines. It has continuously invested in upgrading its toolroom to keep it on par with the rest of its operations.

“Producing our own tooling is huge,” says Dave Jr. “We can get parts on the machine quicker and have faster turnaround times than our customers could get elsewhere. If a tool breaks or we have another issue, we can prioritize and fix it ourselves instead of having to coordinate with somebody on the outside.”

The dedication to vertical integration in-house is proven throughout DMP’s operations. The company believes not many precision machining shops build their own internal capabilities for such varied processes as heat treatment, thermal deburring, laser marking, welding, special grinding, broaching, honing, part washing and assembly, but it does.

“Having to send parts out for secondary processing can add weeks to your delivery time,” says Dave Jr. “If there’s a process we’re going to be doing any real volume of and it’s at all possible to do it in house, we invest in it and our customers benefit for it.”

Adapting in Today’s Market

Given the philosophy DMP has lived by throughout its history, it should be no surprise that the company has taken steps to maintain its competitive edge in today’s rapidly changing market.

“We’ve seen a lot more irregularity in order patterns,” Bill says. “Demand has been more volatile, and our customers have had less advance notice from their customers, which translates into much shorter turnaround times for us.”

The company undertook growth via acquisition in 2015 by purchasing MSP Industries, a manufacturer based in Clearwater, Florida, which shared many of DMP’s values. In 2020, DMP invested in a 120,000-square-foot expansion, nearly doubling the size of its now 245,000-square-foot facility. This increased capacity has boosted the company’s agility, enabling it to respond more quickly to customers’ priorities.

And relative to CNC multi-spindle technology, DMP has invested in new Index machines that feature double-synchronous spindles in recent years.

“With multi-spindles, there’s historically been the challenge that you have five or seven spindle stations working on the front of the part, but just one on the back,” Dave Jr. says. “Because multi-spindle cycle times are dependent on the longest time spent at a station, you had to have parts that required significantly more machining on one side. With two synchronous spindles for backworking, we can bring a lot more part types to the multi’s, which is very beneficial.”

Other recent developments include investing in a five-axis milling machine to further enhance its capabilities and obtaining an aerospace certification to further diversify its customer base. Between its primary facility and MSP Industries, DMP now serves an international mix of companies across the hydraulics, firearms, automotive, aerospace, defense, medical and HVAC industries.

A century in, DMP’s business has evolved to the point where it bears little obvious resemblance to its original operations, but the guiding principles that have led to such a great degree of success are still holding strong.

“We’ve never been afraid to embrace the latest technology,” Dave Jr. says. “We’re always willing to invest in a capability or a process that benefits our customers. Our customers bring us their challenges, and we do what it takes to deliver the results they need. As our customers grow, we continue to support them, and their success fuels our own.”