To build a championship team, it takes more than the right people, equipment and leadership. All the pieces need to be properly integrated so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
That’s the case at Fathom’s Denver facility, where its comprehensive services, strong customer-focused leadership and experienced employees come together to provide customers with a mountaintop experience in the shadow of the Front Range.
Founded as Majestic Metals 45 years ago, it specializes in producing complex sheet metal fabrications. This involves cutting and bending it into complex fabricated sheet metal fabricated parts,, adding holes, countersinks, hardware and other features and welding pieces into assemblies. But its services don’t stop there.
“What sets us apart is that we’re a one-stop shop. We help our customers with everything from part design and development to finishing, which includes things like painting, powder coating and assembly,” explains General Manager Levi Roberts. “That saves them a lot of time and money because they don’t have to source these services from other vendors. We can do everything for them, from start to finish.”
In the process of solving their design challenges and streamlining their part production, the Denver team tends to forge deep, mutually beneficial relationships with its customers. “Many of them consider us as partners, not just vendors,” he adds.
Not surprisingly, many customers have been working with the facility for decades. “We still build parts for our first customer, who started working with us in 1979,” Roberts recalls.
The Majestic Metals by Fathom team prioritizes a deep understanding of customers and their businesses. It’s about acting as a consultant – not an order taker. They ask deep questions like:
- What challenges does the customer’s business face?
- How well does the customer understand the manufacturing process?
- Would different materials and/or methods add value?
- What are the customer’s specific goals for the project, and how do they define success?
Developing a deeper understanding of the customers’ application and its design intent helps it deliver better solutions to its customers.
Deep Historical Knowledge Benefits Customers
Many customers have worked with this facility for years, even decades. A customer may not need a sheet metal supplier for several years, but when the next project arrives, Majestic Metals by Fathom is frequently the first call.
Returning customers often benefit from historical knowledge. The team documents – and typically remembers – previous projects, design challenges and manufacturing lessons learned. That background enables its engineers to guide customers toward better solutions while helping them avoid prior mistakes.
Sometimes that means recommending a different hardware option. Other times it means revisiting a design feature that created manufacturing challenges years earlier.
Bringing Newcomers Up To Speed
Today, many OEMs are experiencing a high level of employee turnover, including retirements. A company may have entirely new buyers, engineers or sourcing managers, each with varying levels of manufacturing knowledge.
Yet the Majestic Metals by Fathom team understands their previous requirements, quality expectations and manufacturing preferences. They can help new customer contacts uncover details that might otherwise get overlooked. That level of continuity brings immeasurable value to long-term customer relationships.
Partnering With Engineers to Build Better Parts
Providing design for manufacturability assistance is one key area of support where the Majestic Metals by Fathom engineering team adds a lot of value.
Modern CAD software makes it possible to design almost anything, but manufacturing it efficiently is a different challenge. Engineers sometimes specify tolerances that exceed what the application requires. Others may overlook how finishing processes, hardware choices or material selections affect cost and manufacturability.
Rather than simply quoting the part, the team works with customers to identify opportunities for improvement. These conversations can involve everything from bend geometry and tolerance requirements to hardware selection, painting considerations and finishing methods.
In many cases, small design adjustments can reduce costs, simplify manufacturing and improve lead times without impacting product performance.
The goal is not to challenge the engineer. It’s to provide the practical manufacturing perspective that turns a good design into a high-quality, cost-effective part.
People: Another Key to Success
Another of the facility’s secrets to success is the deep level of expertise its engineering and production teams bring to customer projects.
The entire Denver team has decades of experience, which helps it consistently deliver high-quality parts, assemblies and services to its loyal customers. Three employees have worked there for over 30 years and at least ten more have 20-25 years of experience.
According to Commercial Account Manager Karl Satrum, when it comes to helping customers optimize their part designs, there’s no substitute for experience:
“The team members here have worked with so many part geometries and solved so many design challenges over the years that they can look at a drawing and instinctively know where the potential problems are likely to be,” he explains.
The team also has extensive knowledge of materials and processes that work best for different types of parts and the applications in which they’re used.
“Our customers instinctively trust their judgment,” Satrum emphasizes.
Facility Visits Pay Off
Majestic Metals by Fathom encourages customers and prospects to tour its large, modern Denver facility, where they can observe its highly efficient layout, processes and people firsthand. The 87,000-square-foot plant is designed around a carefully planned production flow. Material progresses logically from fabrication through welding, finishing, graphics, assembly, packaging and shipping.
Technology – such as automated loading and unloading of its laser-cutting machines – is present, but it’s not the primary focus.
Everything is designed to eliminate wasted motion and keep parts moving. Some jobs travel through every department. Others bypass unnecessary operations and zip through dedicated “speed lanes” that accelerate delivery.
For many projects, that means turnaround times of a week or less.
An Exceptional On-Time Delivery Record
Majestic Metals by Fathom places significant emphasis on scheduling, communication and process control. Every project is carefully planned based on customer deadlines, production requirements and material availability.
If a customer changes a specification or requirement midstream, systems are in place to update documentation and keep the project moving.
That discipline has helped the facility achieve on-time delivery performance of over 99 percent.
People Make the Difference
Majestic Metals by Fathom continues to reflect its family-owned roots. Levi Roberts, the founder’s grandson, serves as general manager. Many employees have spent decades with the facility. That continuity has helped it preserve both its culture and its customer-focused approach.
It also ensures adherence to the philosophy that has guided Majestic Metals since it was founded in 1979:
Technology matters, but people make the difference.
“I know that it sounds like a cliché, but it’s abundantly true. Anyone can buy a laser, a press brake or welding equipment and set up a sheet metal fabrication shop. But what makes us different is the great people we have operating it. That’s where the real value is,” Roberts concludes.
