Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/752766
FOCUS PSB Made in the USA 18 • November 28, 2016 • Powersports Business www.PowersportsBusiness.com at this time. Our equipment includes CNC mills, lathes, Swiss-type screw machines, wire EDM, punch presses to 250 tons, swaging, heat treating and test equipment. We design and manufacture all of our parts in-house and pur- chase all supplies and materials from domestic vendors. We sell dealer direct and through dis- tributors worldwide. We manufacture just about every part we make in-house, which keeps quality control at a premium level. Even the services we outsource are sourced to companies within the U.S., and many are local here in Southern California. PSB: You offer quite a wide range of clutches and cables for a variety of motor- cycles. How do you stay up-to-date with cur- rent models? CT: It takes a lot of research, cross-referenc- ing and R&D. We attack it as a team with some people working with the American V-twin market products, while I research the bulk of the metric motorcycles and ATVs. We order OE product samples for everything new and obtain motorcycles/ATVs as needed for R&D. We just picked up a 2017 Harley Davidson for R&D, and the current stable of test bikes includes a Ducati, Indian, Victory, multiple H-D models, dirt bikes and also full custom bikes. PSB: Once you have a concept clutch/cable, how long is your production timeline? CT: Since we make every product in-house, we can go from concept to prototype to on the shelf pretty quickly. Cables, for example, we have been making them for so many years that in most cases when a new bike comes out, we have the parts to make the necessary cables. Most of our cable parts are made on CNC Swiss- type screw machines. Programming and setup times are short, and we can run these machines 24 hours a day. In a few days, we've got the new cables on the shelf. With the clutch plates, we have a very wide range that we already make for most street/off-road motorcycles and ATVs. If, however, we have to make a totally new plate, we can tool up and have it in production in about two weeks — stamping dies, bonding fix- tures, etc. Everything is computer designed and all tooling is built by us. We find the more we can do ourselves, the better product and service we can offer our customers. PSB: In addition to being made in America, you strive to offer top-notch customer service. Why is this important to you? CT: We pride ourselves on being available to our customers. You can call and talk to a live person, email or even come right to our facility if you're in the area. Another part of it is always standing behind our products and services. If we make a mistake, we'll make it right. PSB BARNETT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 SPECTRO CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 In fact, three years ago, Spectro's oil blender retired after 47 years with the company. Justin Provost, the new blender, trained under the original blender for a year and a half before tak- ing the reigns. "In 50 years of business, we're only on our second guy blending the product," Josefson exclaimed. AMERICAN SOURCING When Spectro asks its customers to buy American-made, the company also heeds its own advice. "It's not just our products that are made here in the U.S., but also most of our components come from the North American market," Josef- son reported. "We don't go to China; we don't go to the Middle East; we don't go to South America. Everything we do is from the U.S. or Canada, pretty much — all the bottles, caps, labels, boxes, all the componentry comes local also. Our No. 1 thing is we want to do quality products; we want to try to support the U.S. as much as possible." Though some products may cost more coming from the U.S., Spectro wants to deliver high-quality oil in high-quality packaging. "It's why we work with a lot of local busi- nesses in terms of our suppliers to make sure that we're getting the best quality stuff, that there's no issues with the manufacturing on their end and then with ours. Because our word to our customers, we live on that, so we can't afford to let even a little issue happen," Josefson said. If anything were to be suspect with the materials, Spectro staff can quickly visit its suppliers. "For us, I can drive to three or four of our suppliers probably within a 10-hour window, so if I have any issues, I'm there, I'm checking it. Luckily, I haven't had any," he said. To date, Spectro has yet to recall any of its products, but processes and procedures are in place for when potential issues are brought up. Each bottle, for example, features a five-digit quality-assurance code on the back, so Spectro can track it back to its origins. "We legitimately care about our products," Josefson said. "It's interesting to see this place when somebody calls up with what they think is an issue with the oil because it's like full-on lockdown mode. I'm talking like DEFCON 1 at the White House because it's such a rarity, and it's just interesting to see everybody just doing research, and we start sending the product out and double-checking, and we'll call back product from a couple of different locations just to see if it is a systemic thing. Not once yet has it actually been an issue with the oil. It's been some other extenuating circumstance." He added, "We take our products very seri- ously here." PSB