Owned by German company Korber Solutions, United expects to draw representatives from fellow Korber-owned brands as well as customers.
MORE: Fuyao is now profitable
The 110,00-square-foot building appears to be made for showcasing, with a good chunk of it set aside as a permanent showroom. Here, visitors can see Walter, Studer, EWAG and Blohm machines and learn the latest ways to strengthen quality and speed production.
United Grinding has about 140 Miamisburg employees. (About 30 employees are based elsewhere.) The company moved from Earl Boulevard — and consolidated a sister location in Virginia — to the current site just west of southbound Interstate 75.
MORE: Senator 'demands answers' in sweeping General Motors layoffs
The move involved incentives exceeding $18 million, including a Montgomery County ED/GE (Economic Development/Government Equity) grant.
Here, customers in aerospace, automotive, medical, tool and die and other industries are served.
“We wanted to have all of our employees as much as possible under one roof,” said Steve Jacobson, United Grinding president and chief executive.
“This area of the Midwest is our hub zone, if you will,” he added. “The majority of our business — about 60 to 70 percent of our business — is located within about six hours’ drive of our location.”
MORE: Tornado-damaged company launches repairs
And why is metal shaping considered an “artistry?”
Because parts need to be perfect, and they need to be made perfectly more than once. Customers bring parts to United Grinding for a proof of concept, and those typically are the most challenging parts they produce, the CEO said.
At United Grinding, customers see whether they can make the parts faster, less expensively or with greater quality.
Walk around the building, and you’ll see several appearances of the German acronym “Puls” — which stands for “passion and precision,” said Jacob Baldwin, a United Grinding spokesman.
“It’s a combination of not only engineering, but art that goes into the design and development of a part,” Jacobson said. “Of course, if that happens with a part, you need a process that mimics the same way.”
As a European company, United Grinding has a strong corporate identity, Jacobson said. “There’s an art theme there, when you look around and see how we designed the building. Not only for functionality, but it looks like a nice building,” he said.
Anyone familiar with a Korber building in another part of the world — say, in Bern, Switzerland — will recognize common features in the Miamisburg building, Baldwin said.
About the Author
