### News Archive

# June 2018

### “We consider ourselves North America’s job shop. That’s kind of our theme. When we say we do quick turnaround, we mean it.”

Tell us about Riverside Spline and Gear Inc.’s place in the gearmanufacturing industry?
We consider ourselves the industry leader in the job shop arena. Weare not afraid of large quantities and do them frequently, but weshine well in the one-off job shop arena. We consider ourselves NorthAmerica’s job shop. That’s kind of our theme. We have an average lotsize of five or less, and that’s uncommon for most gear companies.People are moving more toward mass production of gearing. And it’shard to find someone who has competitive pricing, is high quality,on time, short deliveries in the one-off arena. We are that company.When we say we do quick turnaround, we mean it. We have ourown inhouse bar stock, so if you give us an emergency order in themorning, we can have a piece cut off, turned, gear cut, and off toheat treat that evening. That’s uncommon.

What achievements have you recently accomplished?
The first and most important at this point is our commitment toquality. We’ve achieved the requirements of ISO 9001:2015. Andthis basically assures our customers that we have a commitment toquality, maintaining a quality management system, and a businessmanagement system that is driven from the top down supportedby Aaron Forest, our president, CEO, and owner. Aaron is involved,daily, in the quoting process, operations, and quality functions.Corrective actions and the understanding of where we can improveare of utmost interest to Aaron.

What equipment have you added to better assist customers’needs?
We’ve added six machines in the past five months. We are addingtwo more ID grinders this week and another cut-off saw in a fewweeks. This changes pretty much on a monthly basis right now. Ourbusiness is booming. We are adding machinery and people in orderto meet our commitments to our customers. The largest machinewe’ve added is a Höfler 1500L gear grinder. This Höfler has a 59-inchdiameter capacity, a 59-inch stroke, and can grind a shaft up to 99inches long. We have added a Toshiba VTL and ID grinding to createthe blanks large enough to accommodate this machine. Our wholecompany is focused on our gear grinding. All the machinery thatwe have in the shop is there to support making a gear blank that isworthy of going on those machines.

Tell us about Riverside’s quick turnaround grinding service.
Back in 2006, we broke ground on a new gear grinding center. Weused to have old Reishauer grinders. And our customer base wastalking about larger gearing and different kinds of gearing thatneeded more modifications. We realized that we needed to keep itin-house because we couldn’t find somebody out there to do thatfor us. So, we purchased our first Höfler grinder. It was a Rapid 900.Twelve years later, we have five Höfler grinders ranging from 400mmto 1,500mm. They’re all equipped with Siemens 850D controllers,and they have onboard checking. These Class 14 (DIN 3) machinesrun 23 hours a day. We service many industries with between twoandfive-day turnaround on gear grinding only. Currently, about35 percent of our work is gear grind only for other gear companies.So, we have become an extension to their gear grinding capabilitiesfor meeting their customers’ needs. We appreciate their trust in ourgear grinding capabilities.

What are some of Riverside’s proudest moments?
Back in 2013, we had our 50th anniversary. We’ve come a long wayfrom splining parts for the automotive machinery business and havestayed true to our core values in being a leader in the job shop arena.

Where do you see Riverside in the next 10 to 20 years and its place in the gear industry?
Our future is to grow. We have continuing plans for machinery,manpower, systems, and brick-and-mortar. And we have the spaceto make that happen.

We strive to continue to be our customers’ first choice. Our customerstend to come to us first due to our quick quotes, and shorterlead times, quality, and competitive prices.

It’s easier said than done to be a first choice, of course. We realizeit takes a lot of continued commitment, not only in machinery, butin the training of our people. We have a lot of cross training. In theindustry today, it is very difficult to find qualified personnel. Weoften find that home growing is one of the best ways to increaseand improve our staff. We find people with good attitude and aptitude,and we grow them in the areas where they excel, and thenwe stretch them into other areas where they can continue theirlearning process. This enhances their experience and allows themto grow while contributing to the overall knowledge base of thecompany. Cross training presents us with the opportunity to movemanpower to the work instead of having the work back up in onedepartment. We have a great longevity with our staff. This is greatlyimportant for our future.

We intend to grow the business in four ways:

- Gaining market share with our current customers.
- Adding to our ever-growing customer base.
- Adding machinery and human resources as needed to meetdemands.
- Continue to look for adding products and services to the businessas we see the opportunities to service our customers better.

In short, we have had a tradition of quality since 1963. We intendto continue this tradition and our tradition of shorter lead timesand competitive pricing to meet our customers’ product and serviceneeds.