Employee Ownership

When a company has the support of a dedicated group of employees, it’s likely to continue to grow. Rable Machine Inc. has been in business for more than 60 years and has been employee owned since 1992.

In an article featured in November 2012’s Production Machining (“Probing for Quality”), we take a look at how the company uses on-machine probing to help deliver the precision its customers demand. But an underlying theme of the article, and of the company’s success, remains the dedication of its employees to create the best working environment possible and deliver the best products to its customers.

Rable strives to be on the leading edge of manufacturing technology, and Scott Carter, company president and CEO, attributes the company’s accomplishments to the value the employees feel they supply. “Our emphasis is with our people. That’s our foundation,” he says.

The company is set up as an ESOP—an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Each employee is a stock shareholder in the company with a direct financial stake in its performance. So as management invests in equipment for better efficiency, shopfloor personnel fully accept this equipment rather than seeing it as a threat.

“Being an employee-owned company is a very cool thing,” Mr. Carter says. “Everyone has stock in the business, so their perspective is really very strong in terms of customer value and continuous improvement. We get them involved in the purchase of the equipment, deciding what will be most beneficial to the business. We put together teams, depending on what area we need to grow. And they help us with reviewing the technology and putting us in the right direction.”