BWM July 2013 - page 180

180 | Business World Magazine | July 2013
www.echoqualitygrinding.com
Since its inception in 1978, Echo Quality Grinding
has earned industrial acclaim for its outstanding
expertise, quality and performance as a
specialist in fulfilling a full range of precision
grinding, turning and milling services. Echo
Quality Grinding’s capabilities have been
compelled by a corporate culture that fosters a
philosophy of never-ending commitment to
improvement and incorporation of technological
innovations which not only drive operational
efficiency, but also product precision. Over the
years, the company has grown with its
customers by continually diversifying its
technical capabilities and service capacity. While
it began life as a small business operating out of
a garage in Echo Township, Michigan, with hard
work, material expertise and uncompromising
dedication to customer service, the company is
now positioned as an essential partner in
industry. Today, with its staff of more than 30
people, Echo operates from a 25,000
square-foot, climate-controlled facility,
complemented with 19 separate CNC centers,
where it manufactures components that uniquely
serve in applications of industries such as
aerospace, agriculture, healthcare, energy and
more. Its cross-training systems, quality
assurance standards and collaborative approach
to business effectively enables Echo to impart
innovative and customized solutions that
ultimately spare customers from unnecessary
burdens of cost, time delay or frustration. Within
its market, Echo Quality Grinding has earned
awards for entrepreneurial excellence in
economic development, yet within its industry,
Echo has more importantly earned distinction as
a loyal, committed and highly capable provider of
high quality machined parts.
is quite unique to Traverse City, Michigan.
This was the same Northern Michigan com-
munity where industry innovators John T.
Parsons and Frank Stulen developed the first
numerically-controlled device utilized in
machining the accurate curvature of rotors
crucial in the manufacturing of helicopters.
In an effort to exact stress calculations in the
production of rotors, Stulen initially experi-
mented with a punched-card machine that
could generate a 17-point outline. Parsons
later expanded on that approach by partner-
ing with MIT to develop a more sophisticat-
ed, fully-automated tool, but these processes