March 28, 2025 Midwest Character Inspires High-Tech Solutions

Volume 28 | Issue 1

Customer solutions that meet demanding accuracy and quality goals for metal parts.

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When Vietnam war veteran Jerry Rathburn started his company in 1983, he focused on quality parts made by good people who cared about the work they did.

Today, Rathburn Precision Machining is led by one of Jerry’s daughters, Angie Holt, and is a certified woman-owned company. Though the leadership has changed, the company’s focus on quality people and parts has not. In 2024, Rathburn changed their name from “Tool & Manufacturing” to “Rathburn Precision Machining”.

According to company President Angie Holt, the change was a reflection of the brand’s growth. “We have evolved considerably from a job shop to a full-service company offering high precision quality production parts. Our name needed to reflect both the evolution and help people clearly understand what we do.”

Based in Auburn, Indiana at a 40,000 squarefoot facility, Rathburn is strategically situated to serve customers in the Midwest and beyond that need quality, American-made metal components. Rathburn specializes in precision-machined metal components (aluminum, cast iron, steel, brass, stainless steel and superalloys) in a turning envelope of 38mm diameter for Swiss, 8” diameter for gantry-fed lathes, 10” diameter for chucker work, and a 20” cube for milling. The company can produce quantities between 100 to 200,000 or more per year, depending on complexity, with an ideal part weight of less than 30 pounds.

“For the first 30+ years of our history our customer base was focused on the heavy trucking industry,” Holt explains, “While we still work with customers in that space, we have expanded to other sectors and connect well with customers looking for automotive-level quality from a company that is more than just a supplier. We work best with people who want and need an agile partner who is working side-by-side with them to find great solutions to their challenges. Our engineers meet with customers to fully understand their needs, tolerances, volume, materials, and other requirements, and then create a plan to meet those needs.”

Holt says the typical solution is built to customer- provided prints, but Rathburn is also asked at times to develop prototypes or alternative solutions in partnership with customers. “We proactively help address customer issues.”

In one example, a manufacturer was facing increased demand at a time when their supplier was failing to meet their quality and delivery needs. Rathburn was able to ramp up quickly to address their machining needs, improve quality and delivery, and enable more scalability as the market flexed.

Rathburn’s engineering team met with the customer’s Engineer and Quality Manager to review prints, understand critical features, and hear frustrations. Doing this before starting manufacturing enabled the team to proactively solve challenges and ensure the customer got the quality parts they needed from the start.

For instance, during the review, the Rathburn team discovered that the finish expectations weren’t detailed on the prints. By identifying the issue before manufacturing, the first samples delivered exceeded expectations and resulted in the customer placing regular monthly orders.

Technology and Quality

Holt identifies several critical components that uniquely enable Rathburn to meet customer needs—quality standards, technology, people, and small-town values.

“We meet or exceed the quality expectations of our customers,” Holt says. “Rathburn has a Quality Management System compliant with ISO 9001, IATF 16949, and AS9100 standards. Our dedicated team of experienced professionals achieve the highest quality by following established processes and adhering to customer specifications.”

She adds, “Many of our customers rely on Rathburn to provide parts as needed and scale up or down according to market demand, with the same level of quality and speed of delivery. That could be in the next quarter, the next year, or even once every ten years.”

Repeatability and high quality are achievable with Rathburn’s advanced automation and robot technologies. Equipment includes the latest CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) mills and lathes outfitted with bar feeders, parts catchers, robotics, and live tooling. Latest investments include a twin spindle gantry lathe, a pair of automated saws, wire EDM and collaborative robots that improve precision and greatly reduce the potential for human error.

Rathburn also maintains a climate-controlled Quality Lab that utilizes three Coordinate Measurement Machines (CMM), an Optical Comparator, a Surface Roughness Tester, and other metrology equipment that ensure consistent and precise gauging and measurement inspections. These quality tools and processes enable Rathburn to manage a significant volume of parts with <1% internal scrap rate.

“In late 2024, we transitioned to the Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform by Rockwell Automation as our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) / Material Resource Planning (MRP) system.” Holt notes. “It is helping us to access real-time data, monitor efficiencies, manage our inventory, and streamline production, among other capabilities. We are also using it to transition to a fully digital shop floor, which will include digital work instructions and inspections.”

She adds, “This software system combines the functionality of our previous programs to allow for one true source of data, from customer-specific requirements to causes of internal scrap to employee training progress. It allows our employees to have more time to better utilize their talents and reach their full potential.”

A commitment to technology does not interfere with the company’s commitment to its people. Which is why Rathburn was recently named one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana. “We have 30 employees, many of whom have been with the company for five years or more,” Holt explains “Many of them started as temps who we eventually hired permanently. It’s easier for us to train people who have the right attitude, are willing to learn, and are a good fit with our culture.”

Family Business

She adds, “Rathburn is a family business and we treat our employees like family. We offer good wages with benefits including healthcare, matching 401K plans, and wellness programs. We also invite employee suggestions about how to make their jobs more efficient and achieve continuous improvement. If something makes sense, we’ll try it. If it doesn’t work out, we’re open to try the next idea.”

Last but not least is what Rathburn touts as “small town values.” According to Holt, “Our company character is represented every day in how we operate, how we work together, and how we commit to working hard to make a difference every day with deliverable, manufacturable solutions. Our aim is to make working with Rathburn as easy and enjoyable as it is effective. When done well, our values will show in the people who work here and the quality of work we produce every day.

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