MSI Turns 50!

This year, MSI is celebrating 50 years in business. Here is a brief history of how our company was started and how we grew into the company we are today.

Extreme Origins

1970’s: Manufacturing Services, Inc. was founded in 1970 by J.A. Dalpiaz and N.J. Grenier. The humble beginnings of MSI took place in the basement of an old textile equipment factory, with less than 3,000 square feet of space. From this small, dank room, the seed that would grow into our current business was planted. In the later years of 1970, Paul and “Dal” moved the company into our current facility, which was a little larger, but no less humble than the abandoned basement. At the time, our current plant was only around 13,000 square feet. Back then, the only manufacturing equipment we used consisted of various types of multi-spindle automatic screw machines and a handful of employees to run them.

Gaining Momentum

1980’s: Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s MSI continued to produce various metal components with its screw machines. The main product line of the company was aluminum terminal inserts that were molded into electrolytic capacitor covers. With their trusty multi-spindled screw machines, the operators of MSI turned out parts in the millions during this decade. The company also began producing a wide array of parts and components for many different products and industries, including gas pumps, dental equipment, valves and fasteners.

Spring Has Arrived

1990’s: The most exciting time in our business’ history began in 1994. The small business was sold to the current president and vice president, Ron Grenier and Bill Blalock, respectively. The new ownership saw opportunities for growth in not only the screw machine industry, but in other markets as well. The first major event of this time was the expansion of our facility to include a spacious warehouse used for shipping, receiving and inventory storage. With the increased space, MSI could store many more types and sizes of materials. A second upgrade was added to house our internal scrap metal and oil recycling process. The main facility of MSI was now around 22,000 square feet, with plenty of more room to grow. This period of our company’s history saw faster and larger growth in our screw machine department than the previous 20 years of the company’s history.

Branching Out

2000’s: The 2000’s saw great change and expansion to the company. New departments and divisions were added to help diversify the products and services MSI could offer. And so, the seed that was planted those many years ago in that small, musty basement began to branch out.
First MSI obtained ISO 9001 certification for its quality system, giving us the opportunity to obtain a more diversified customer base as well as provide our customers with a level of world class quality assurance. We have been ISO certified for 20 consecutive years.
Second was the expansion of our services to our existing customer base by adding CNC turning and milling equipment, offering smaller, more precise part production. Ken Kirby, with his many years of CNC experience, was added as a partner to help guide and manage the new area. Our CNC department is now firmly rooted, becoming one of the busiest areas in our company. MSI now offers turning, milling, Swiss machining and turn/mill capabilities.
Third was the expansion into the plastic injection molding market to serve the capacitor industry. For years, MSI had produced aluminum inserts that were then sent on to be molded into capacitor covers. With the establishment of our molding department, we could now mold our own aluminum terminals in-house. Our molding department now offers many other types of products besides capacitor covers, with both thermoset and thermoplastic injection molding capabilities.Both of the new departments are housed in a 10,000 square foot building on our existing property. Both of these ventures were a resounding success and over the past 16 years we have become a trusted supplier to the served industries.

The Legacy Continues

One thing that has not changed since our humble beginnings is our commitment to quality and customer service. We have followed our quality policy to “meet and exceed our customer’s needs by using our quality system to continuously improve.” We thank all of those customers who have grown with us these past 50 years, some of which have been with us for decades and look forward to developing lasting relationships with new customers in the future.