August 2008 - Focus on Preferred Machining Facility

A Return to Roots

Preferred Machining has worn several hats over its 35 year lifespan.  Originally founded as a contract machining job shop, the facility probably became best known in the 1980’s and ‘90’s for the production of the Preferred Compound Liner as well as several pieces of equipment for the food processing industry.  The firm was acquired by Alcoa Packaging Equipment in 2002 where it subsequently became a division of Stolle Machinery in their CMD operations, continuing their legacy of high-quality parts production and assembly work.

2008 will go down in Preferred’s history as another milestone year as ISO 9001 Certification was recently rewarded to the facility by Orion Register, Inc., an independent US certification company.  Passing stringent guidelines regarding quality, control and processes, the certification puts the Stolle division in an even better position to continue their history of producing quality parts and systems for the can-making industry.

According to Greg Wiesner, General Manager at Preferred, “We actually had many of the procedures in place informally before we started.  We just needed to add to our good practices, lose one or two bad habits and formalize everything so it could be reported properly.  It turned out to be very beneficial.”  Combined with the results of a recent quality audit follow-up by Rexam, where the shop received high praise for their on-going attention to 5s, Preferred Machining today fills an important role in the Stolle CMD production picture.  “When we looked at our history of consistently producing high quality parts and combined that with our huge in-house QC lab - we do check every part before it ships - the decision was made that we would dedicate ourselves to making parts and leave the assembly work to Centennial,” said Wiesner.  Stolle has since invested heavily in upgrading and revamping the machining facility to be dedicated to the production of Genuine Stolle OEM parts and spares.

Wiesner says, “ Our new Mazak 800mm horizontal mill is a good example.  It was custom built for us and has a 6 pallet pool so that parts can be staged outside of the machine and then machined without stopping for set-up each time.  It’s just one constant motion while it’s running.”  With a 120 tool magazine, 10,000 RPM spindle, 1000 PSI coolant pressure, the machine is capable of machining a wide variety of Stolle parts.  The machine is capable of maintaining the stringent tolerance requirements of Stolle OEM parts with a repeatability accuracy tolerance of .0002.  Since coming on-line in February 2008, the machine has reduced the cycle time on many of the parts, resulting in lower cost and improved lead-times.  Chris McAlpine, Director of the StollePlus Aftermarket Program, continues,  “Stolle is growing globally as a first tier supplier of quality spares and upgrades.  A lot of other spares dealers sub their parts out to the lowest bidder, but Stolle can rely on Preferred for consistent quality without worrying about out-of-spec parts or slow delivery.  We won’t allow anything to interrupt our customer service and upgrading this world-class machining facility is part of that commitment.”

For further information on Genuine Stolle Spares or OEM parts, please contact:

Chris McAlpine
303-708-5048
chris.mcalpine@stollemachinery.com