Posted by: Brian Rothstein
on November 18, 2020 | 3 min. read
on November 18, 2020 | 3 min. read
Have you ever known somebody so long that you can’t even remember how you met? That just happened to be the case during a recent conversation with the President of HSI Metal Stamping. Our two companies have been working together before both of our times. I guess it’s just the sort of thing that happens when both companies started up in the early 60s and 70s. Still, we had a great conversation about our more recent working history. You know, the past two or three decades.
Before I share what we talked about, let’s take a moment to get to know HSI Metal Stamping and their President.
About HSI Metal Stamping
HSI Metal Stamping, founded in 1972, is a family owned and operated business. They are a complete stamping facility specializing in short to medium run metal fabrication of precision parts. Located in Buffalo, Minnesota, HSI is approximately 35 miles west of Minneapolis/St.Paul.
HSI is a fabricated parts supplier with a reputation for reliability. They are committed to maintaining low costs, ensuring quality parts, and guaranteeing customer satisfaction. And for the past few decades, they’ve partnered with Mead Metals to source a variety of material.
Working with Mead Metals
I had the opportunity to speak with Paula Herda, President of HSI Metal Stamping, who’s worked with us for many years. In fact, the partnership between HSI and Mead began before Paula started at the company in 1994! Still, we had a fantastic conversation about her experience over the years. Here are a few highlights from our conversation:
Dedicated Sales Staff
Tony has been my direct contact at Mead, and he’s fabulous. He always goes over and above and is just kind in the way that he handles our account. He is extremely prompt in returning emails, whether it’s requesting a quote or looking for additional information.”Excellent Lead Times
“Another reason we go to Mead for a lot of our metal is because the lead times are excellent. If I need a delivery expedited, a lot of times they're able to make it happen.
Most of what we get from Mead is within a five-day window, and I consider that excellent. It allows me to be able to handle my inventory better. I’m not having to purchase things out as far because it can hit my floor when I need it, instead of inventorying those items, and carrying those over.
Just-in-time is very helpful for us and for the shop flow. We do not run the same material all the time here. We have thousands of material we run because we are a short to medium run stamper. We need smaller amounts, and we need them fast.”
Product Quality
“Mead’s product quality is excellent. It arrives well packaged, on-time. To my knowledge, we have never returned material for flaws or imperfection in the material. I would say, of all the suppliers I work with for metal goods, Mead is superior in that regard, by far.”Flexible Order Sizes
“We have a wide variety of order sizes here. We can make five prototypes for one customer and 500,000 production parts for another customer. And Mead is able to help us facilitate both of those and help us procure both of those options, which is extremely helpful.
I would rather do business locally and not have to use online resources and wait for lead times and pay UPS charges when I can get smaller quantities from Mead and have them arrive in under 5 days.”
A Partnership Built to Last
“I didn’t have a first impression of Mead, because I wasn’t the one who onboarded Mead as a supplier.
But what’s more important to me than a first impression is a lasting impression. And my lasting impression is that Mead is a superior supplier that’s extremely reliable and makes my job easier as a business owner and as someone who sources the raw material.
It’s a pleasure doing business with Mead, and I can’t say enough good things about it. A lot of companies don’t retain that type of relationship over the long haul. Having a partner we’ve been using for 30+ years, it really says a lot about those companies.”
Thank you, Paula, for sharing your experiences working with Mead Metals over the years. We’re thrilled to have you as a customer, and we look forward to HSI’s continued success!
