Diesel Exchange Inc. serves diverse customer base

When Steve and Lisa Hen-drick moved the Diesel Ex-change into a new 63,000-square-foot facility last year, it marked the beginning of a new era. The Hendricks, who started the company back in 1992, immediately began investing in tools and machinery. Now the Hendricks say they have one of the most complete independent diesel remanufacturing machine shops in the United States.

"Many companies that re-build diesel engines have the parts machined elsewhere," said Lisa Hendrick. "We do all of our own machine work in-house. It has helped us ensure quality, and it's generated more business because we can ma-chine just about any part or component."

Diesel Exchange primarily remanufactures engines produced by Detroit Diesel, Cum-mins and Caterpillar. Most of the remanufacturing work is done at the plant. Some jobs, however, must be done onsite, and employees frequently travel to rock quarries and construction sites where they repair large, hard-to-move pieces of equipment.

Unlike other companies in the Springfield area that remanufacture diesel engines for large national distributors, Diesel Ex-change deals directly with individual customers and small companies. Because Diesel Ex-change deals with a wide variety of clients, much of the remanufacturing work done at the shop is considered custom.

A walk through the shop reveals the company's broad customer base. Several large, custom-built motor coaches are located in the back of the shop. In another area, workers are remanufacturing some diesel engines for an oil drilling company in Argentina.

"This is a high-overhead business," Lisa Hendrick said. "We have to keep about every kind of part imaginable in stock, which means we have a lot of money tied up in inventory."

Currently the Hendricks are working on refining a computerized inventory control system that will help them tighten operations a bit. They're also trying to develop a better way of forecasting future business.

"It's very difficult for us to forecast future sales," said Steve Hendrick. "There are so many variables. We deal with individual customers, plus the industries we serve are constantly changing. A few years ago, the oil industry was a bust. Now it's booming, and we're getting a lot of work from that sector. The same applies for the construction industry. It might be up one year and down the next."

Despite these challenges, the Hendricks have managed to continue expanding their business. The company has moved three times to accommodate its rapid growth, and the work force has increased from 10 to 58 employees. Several of these employees are Automotive Ser-vice Excellence-certified as machinists and master machinists.

Much of the company's growth can be attributed to the Hendricks' concentrated marketing efforts. They advertise in several national magazines and industry trade publications, maintain an active Web site, publish and distribute a newsletter twice a year and use an on-hold phone system that de-scribes the company's many services. However, the Hen-dricks said their biggest source of business is customer referrals.

Diesel Exchange's growth and commitment to excellence hasn't gone unnoticed. Recent-ly, the company received the "Machine Shop of the Year" award from Engine Builder Magazine, which is published by the Automotive Engine Rebuilders Association.

AERA, which is located in Buffalo Grove, Ill., is a not-for-profit trade association serving the engine rebuilding and re-manufacturing industry and represents more than 3,200 members located worldwide.