Custom Fabricators, Inc. Case As Ben Lawson, CEO of Custom Fabricators, Inc., drove back to his home in south Indianapolis, he thought about the day. lots of business with Orleans Elevator in Bloomington over the years, but I'm just wondering how long this will continue. I've invested a lot in my manufacturing plant located right next to their plant, but now that United Technologies [Orleans' parent company] is all involved in this FreeMarkets Internet purchasing system, I'm just wondering how long they'll be interested in keeping me in the supply. -chain ring. It's been a good business in recent years. I was in the right place at the right time when Orleans began lean, just-in-time manufacturing in the late 1980s. Initially I was only involved in making control panels for elevators. It was interesting to walk into a new building, get on the elevator, and see my company's handiwork in that beautiful stainless steel panel that houses the buttons for the building's floors. I could be very proud of the craftsmanship even though it was largely a technological issue. That new CNC machine tool I bought in 1985 made it easy to punch holes in those custom panels. We are still making beautiful panels. Since then my company has gotten a lot more business from Orleans. Now we produce all kinds of brackets and special panels for the plant. This has been great for us over the years. We have developed a very efficient process to manufacture exactly what the plant needs in these parts with minimal lead times. For most items, Orleans simply provides us with the production schedule for elevators shipped in the following month and we automatically produce the required parts. We know exactly what they need based on their schedule. Of course, it's easy to modify things for the specific needs of a particular elevator order. However, business has changed in recent years. Outsourcing is the big game now. Orleans is much more interested in entire subassemblies rather than just parts. Now let's make the entire control panel, complete with buttons and wiring. One of our biggest earners is the elevator motor housing. This is a huge box that contains the motor and control electronics of the elevator. The motor housing connects electronically to our control panel. We custom manufacture each of these in our shop and ship them directly to where the elevator is assembled. The Orleans plant doesn't even see them.