Business View Magazine | December 2019

149 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019 THERMWOOD CORPORAT ION here. We also do the software development. Our technology services provide free service over the phone and online, as well as on our forums. It doesn’t cost anyone to talk to our service technicians, whether you bought a new machine or whether you bought a used one from a used machinery dealer, and not directly from us.” “We’ve got machines out there that are over 20 years old, and they continue to work,” adds Palmer. “When our customers increase their needs, then they buy another machine from Thermwood.” Another of Thermwood’s philosophies pertains to upgrading and maintaining their equipment. “Our service department, they’re my biggest competitor,” Palmer admits. “They’re a separate profit group. They buy some of our equipment, refurbish it, then they sell it under new warranties.” “We’ll buy refurbished equipment from our customers, either on a trade-in or just straight out,” Susnjara says. “Then we’ll sell that machine as a new machine, with used pricing, under a new warranty. It’ll get a whole new paint job, new rails, new components. It’ll look like a brand-new machine, sold at a used price.” As for training and education, Thermwood offers three maintenance training courses to 3- and 5-axis operator/programmers, covering all the basics from preventative maintenance, to electrical and mechanical troubleshooting, to machine alignments. They also train their own employees in-house. “We’re considered a small business, so to have apprenticeship programs and things of that nature would be difficult,” says Susnjara. “But because we manufacture the CNC routers, anyone that runs a CNC router in this facility is generally trained by us.” Besides onsite training, other employee incentives include health benefits, retirement plans, and a bonus structure that allows everybody to have a share in Thermwood’s earnings. “It’s a percentage on the amount of profit we earn every quarter,” Susnjara explains. “As long as they continue to do a good job, everything goes out great, all