 Texas Technology
El Paso, TX811 Southwestern Drive, El Paso, TX
'Made in USA' still affordable, owner says'
At least one El Paso manufacturer is not afraid of competition from foreign companies. Not from Mexico. Not China. Not even from her native India.
Nivedita Srivastava, 37, president of Texas Technology, 811 Southwestern Drive, said the El Paso company produces tiny electronic parts so efficiently that no foreign company can compete in quality and price.
The company, organized in 1999 as Sri Maruti Nandan, a limited liability company doing business as Texas Technology, has been designing, building and selling stamped metal components for the electrical and electronics industries.
The company started with one machine and now has six. From one component, or part, the company is now producing 10 components. Production averages 14 million parts a year, and a recent order for up to 5 million came for one component alone.
"We use state-of-the-art technology, and we keep our overhead costs down," Srivastava said. "We can meet and beat any offshore price."
Srivastava said there are two areas of manufacturing, materials and labor.
"Cost of materials all over the world is constant," she said. "The big difference is labor. The maquiladoras were doing good in Mexico until wages went up. So the manufacturers moved to China. Now China wages are going up, so we may see the manufacturers moving somewhere else, such as India.
The secret of staying competitive is to use advanced techniques to produce a high-quality product, she said.
Workers at the company, one of about a dozen such metal-stamp manufacturing companies in El Paso, are highly trained. They earn from $7.50 an hour to $20 an hour, depending on their job and the training they have received. The three major workers are a machinist, a set-up worker and an operator.
"All three are cross-trained, so there's no waiting around for one of the team members to catch up," Srivastava said.
Ector Calvillo, operations manager, said his job is definitely "high tech."
"I'm earning above-average wages," the 1988 Coronado High School graduate said. "I've received a lot of training from El Paso Community College as a machinist."
Flavio Gardea, a 2003 Eastwood High School graduate, says he loves his job as a tool and die maker-operator.
"It's precise work," he said. "Every die has to be measured just exactly right."
While working full time, Gardea is also attending the machine shop program at EPCC.
In addition to the three permanent employees, the company hires two part-timers, one to maintain the machines and the other to use the computer to design parts.
The company obtained a U.S. Small Business Administration for an undisclosed amount to expand by buying more machines. Srivastava received help to get the loan from Olga Tavárez, certified business adviser at the community college's Small Business Development Center. Tavárez helped develop a business plan and loan proposal for the company's expansion plans.
"I do not know what we would have done without Ms. Tavárez's assistance," Srivastava said. "She guided us all the way and was extremely patient with us."
Tavárez said that from Jan. 1 to May 31 of this year, the center helped companies obtain 30 loans, 23 guaranteed by the SBA and seven non-SBA loans. The SBA loans totaled $8.1 million. The non-SBA loans totaled $500,951.
In 2004, the center helped clients obtain 65 loans, 45 guaranteed by the SBA for a total value of $8.1 million, and 20 non-SBA loans worth $1.2 million.
Srivastava described her manufacturing business as "high tech." Workers must take machine shop training, and must know how to read blueprints and how to use precise measuring devices.
Some of the parts are about the size of a fingernail. They are made of brass or copper and plated with tin.
Clients are U.S. manufacturers, including some that operate maquiladoras in Juárez.
Texas Technology's main customer is Cooper Bussmann, a Juárez maquiladora that makes fuses for cars, boats and homes, as well as connectors for the electronics industry.
"We've been doing business with Texas Technology for the past five years," said Silver Santillanes, Bussmann's commodity buyer. "Their quality is excellent. They provide us with the product the same day we ask for it. It's great to have a local supplier because we don't have to wait around until the parts come in."
Santillanes described Texas Technology as "a metal-stamp shop with progressive tools."
Srivastava would not divulge her company's annual sales, citing the competitive nature of the manufacturing industry.
"I can say that we've tripled our production since we bought more machines," she said. "Our ambition is to have all the machines working at the same time and move into a bigger building. The present plant has 2,000 square feet."
Texas Technology has the capacity to establish a larger, more diversified customer base that will generate increased sales revenue, she said.
Some day, she said, the company will be making parts for overseas companies in addition to U.S. manufacturers.
At least one El Paso manufacturer is not afraid of competition from foreign companies. Not from Mexico. Not China. Not even from her native India.(Story was featured in the El Paso Times, June 10, 2005, by Ken Flynn Times Reporter.)
|
 |
