Company combines disciplines of trade

A sardine plant, a vitamin pill company and a company that makes salad dressing are just a few of Hal Buchert's clients.

Buchert, owner of B&A Engineering Consultants in Springfield, said, "We primarily work on improving manufacturing, distributing and warehouse operations," he said.

His employees include a process engineer, a packaging engineer, a registered engineer and an outside company that does the drafting work.

The process engineer works on how to put together a variety of ingredients to make and develop the product. He develops the process and determines what kind of equipment will be needed.

The packaging engineer performs packaging design work, and the registered engineer does a lot of the structural design work for the building, or for items inside the building, and estimates what it will cost to accomplish the client's goals. An outside company does the drafting work using the Computer Aided Design system.

"I spend a lot of time on site with the client to identify the problems that need to be solved," Buchert said. "Then I bring that information back to my employees and we prepare an action plan."

Buchert was the director of engineering for a large company before starting his own business. His job takes him all over the United States and to Australia.

His 46 clients include a sardine plant in Maine, a French bread pizza company in Pennsylvania, a salad dressing company in Massachusetts and a vitamin pill company in Chicago.

Locally, his clients include aluminum and sheet metal companies, Aire-Master, a deoxidizing service company, and Ott Products, another salad dressing manufacturer, located in Carthage.

To obtain new clients, Buchert looks for news articles. When someone's been promoted in a company, he sends them a letter of congratulations and includes information on his company.

He also uses information provided in manufacturers' directories and makes cold calls.

"We are always open to entertain new clients but keep pretty busy," he said. "We're in demand. We save people a lot of money by providing a third-party perspective on their business."

Buchert said he considers it a good return on the client's investment if he can save that person 10 times what his engineering fee will be.

He added that he believes people in southwest Missouri are beginning to see what an engineer can do for their companies.

"They're starting to see that what an engineer does can play a significant role in their business," he said. "Ten or 12 years ago, it was a hard sell. But if you do a good job, it's an easy sell. Now, we're getting a lot of blind calls from people wanting us to do work for them."

Buchert believes the personalized method goes a long way.

"We've been successful because we talk to people and listen," he said.