DEDICATED TO EXCELLENCE: SERVICE • QUALITY • INNOVATION
ESTABLISHED 1953
By Lance Thrailkill, CEO of All Metals Fabricating
I truly believe that our success at All Metals Fabricating is due first and foremost to the strength of our team across the shop. That’s why culture building is such a central part of our planning and operations. We want to ensure that every person in every role is aligned on our goals and bought into our initiatives.
Over the past several years, we’ve refined the structure behind our efforts to create the right culture. Learn how we’ve built a shop where every employee is invested in delivering quality work on time for our customers.
Team members can only align on goals if leaders set clear targets. Since 2021, we’ve used the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to turn our vision into priorities our team can execute. We set a 10-year target and work backward into a three-year picture, a one-year plan, and even 90-day priorities.
When we started, I wrote down a list of improvements I’d wanted to implement for years. Many are now completed and are directly improving our customer experience. For instance, faster quoting had been a long-standing goal, but several years ago, we adopted software that allows us to respond faster and more consistently than ever.
Automation has been another priority, and we’ve made significant gains in automation over the past several years to boost efficiency and reduce lead times for our customers. Most recently, that included expanding our lights-out capacity with a new 5-axis Kitamura Supercell-300G.
Goals don’t matter if they only live in a leader’s head. We build buy-in throughout the shop by not only making our goals clear, but empowering employees to truly succeed.
Our focus on servant leadership goes hand-in-hand with our EOS structure. We lead by removing obstacles and giving people the tools and the support they need to thrive. When they know they own a project, they take pride in the results.
I even want our language to reinforce this mindset, and that’s why I always want people to say “we.” For example, someone might say, “All Metals hit its on-time delivery goal this month.” I’ll tell them: “We hit our on-time delivery goal this month.”
It’s a small shift, but it really matters. It reinforces that this isn’t happening just to the “company” or the leadership. Every person on the team is part of our biggest wins and our toughest losses.
In a sheet metal shop, the people closest to the work will naturally see issues first. They know firsthand the bottlenecks and process gaps that can create scrap or delays. We actively seek out feedback on our process and our culture.
And we always want to empower employees to help us turn their feedback into action. If someone raises an issue, we seek out their help in identifying the root cause and implementing a fix.
These employee surveys have shown consistently improving satisfaction over the years. Last year, that was validated by the third-party survey process that led to All Metals Fabricating being named to The Dallas Morning News’ Top Workplaces D-FW list.
One of the key components of the EOS model is data and metrics, and we emphasize that throughout our shop. We track customer-facing metrics, like on-time delivery and quality, along with internal indicators about team engagement. EOS offers us scorecards and helps us set measurable targets, and we’ve reached world-class metric levels in recent years.
And while hard data is essential, in my years in the shop, I’ve learned you can also feel alignment on the floor. When teams are communicating clearly and problems are addressed quickly, you can see it in action. That atmosphere creates the best possible outcome for our customers.
If you’re looking for a partner for precision machining, sheet metal fabrication, and more, choose a team that’s all-in on your project. Request a quote today, and let’s talk about your needs!
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