Company Background
David Grilli and Bob Joy ran the magnetic shielding division for the Gloucester, Massachusetts company BOMCO. Then in 1989 they purchased BOMCO’s magnetic shielding division and formed MuShield Company. MuShield moved to Goffstown, New Hampshire and eventually they turned the 5 person business into a successful 20+ person magnetic shielding solutions and precision metal forming shop.
MuShield saw incredible growth and outgrew their Goffstown facility. So in 2004, MuShield purchased a 19,000 square foot building in Londonderry, New Hampshire. This enabled MuShield to invest in larger machines. Then in 2019 they added 12,000 square feet and purchased a new furnace. Mushield now has 40 employees.
MuShield was the first in the magnetic shielding industry to be ISO 9001 certified. Not only are they ISO 9001:2015 certified but also AS9100D certified as well as ITAR registered. The primary markets they serve are commercial, aerospace, defense, medical and scientific communities.
Situation
“We were looking to increase our business,” said Ed Nordengren, Operation Manager for MuShield. “That led to us getting more inquiries from the aerospace and defense industries.” Those inquiries meant MuShield was being sent more complex, detailed drawings where GD&T was needed to understand and manufacture the components.
“So to keep up with that work and understand the complexities of what we were receiving, we needed GD&T training for our employees, particularly our engineers and those in quality,” said Nordengren. This would allow MuShield the opportunity to garner more work in the aerospace and defense industries.
Solution
Knowing they needed GD&T training Ed and Fred Wachter their Quality Manager got together to come up with a plan. “We decided we needed an in-house GD&T training program that would focus specifically on the types of drawing and prints that we deal with,” said Nordengren.
Fred was very familiar with NH MEP and the kinds of training they provide manufacturers in New Hampshire. So they reached out to NH MEP who developed a 2 day in-house GD&T training program for 6 of MuShield’s employees.
The training program was based on ASME Y14.5, 2009 contrasting ASME Y14.5M-1994. It included an introduction to geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, and how to inspect to GD&T requirements. First they learned the many core principles of GD&T and then moved onto the advanced concepts. “This gave our employees a comprehensive understanding of GD&T and how to apply it to their work,” said Nordengren.
Results
“The GD&T training allowed us to become more competent and efficient with our manufacturing processes. This enabled us to increase our sales. We were able to do more work with our current customers and it gave us the ability to expand the business by getting new customers,” said Nordengren.
Because of the increase in business, MuShield hired another engineer and some quality personnel. It also allowed them to purchase a new $850,000 vacuum furnace as well a $2,500,000 expansion of the facility to accommodate the new furnace.
Ed Nordengren sums things up this way, “By educating our workforce on GD&T we were better able to compete for the very demanding aerospace and defense work. MuShield has become more competitive and it helped us to win more bids. The GD&T training was instrumental in improving our demonstrative competence in our manufacturing field.”
The following results for MuShield Company can be credited to having gone through NH MEP’s GD&T Training Program:
- Retained sales of $2,500,000 over the last 12 months that otherwise would have been lost
- Created 2 new jobs over the last 12 months
- Retained 2 jobs over the last 12 months
- $40,000 cost savings in labor, materials energy, overhead or other areas over the last 12 months
- Increased investment of $850,000 in new products or processes over the last 12 months
- Increased investment of $2,500,000 in plant or equipment over the last 12 months
- Increased investment of $40,000 in information systems and software over the last 12 months
- Increased investment of $6,000 in workforce practices or employee skills over the last 12 months
- Avoided $350,000 of any unnecessary investments or saved on any investments in the past 12 months
For more information or to learn how NHMEP can setup an in-house training program for your company, please contact Training Coordinator Jill Duddy at
603-226-3200 or jilliand@nhmep.org.
“The convenience of the in house training offered by NH MEP allowed us to train more people at one time, kept our people available to the shop at a moment’s notice and was very cost effective. The training itself helped us to gain a higher level of understanding of the design intent of each drawing as defined by the GD & T call outs. This allows us to not only have better dialogue with our customers during the engineering review stages of the job but also gives us the ability to offer the most efficient manufacturing and measuring processes possible.”