November 19th, 2009 by Ron Jr "Reg" Gustafson

Companies serious about Speed to Market require good prototype and short run suppliers to support the effort. Production suppliers have a production mindset and are geared for production; it is difficult to cross the boundaries between the prototype and production worlds. Clinkenbeard has streamlined the prototyping process, from initial contact for quotation to shipping and tracking the package to your door. We eat sleep breathe the flexibility necessary to make things happen quickly. This includes taking HOT orders which change our personal and work schedules daily, implementing engineering changes throughout our business and manufacturing processes, and finding a way to get parts to your door Monday morning when they were just finished Sunday night. Believe it or not, we were just discussing parts which will be done this Sunday night, and need to take a trip to be delivered by 7AM Monday morning 4 states away. We are often involved in projects which Clinkenbeard is the dual source – to be sure that our customer has parts one way or another. Dual sourcing parts is an expensive insurance policy; companies who engage in this type of activity are very serious about Speed to Market.

October 21st, 2009 by Ron Jr "Reg" Gustafson

Clinkenbeard’s Fasterestest Blog addresses two key audiences:

1. The Rockford business, political, economic development, manufacturing, and aerospace-related communities;

2.  All professionals who wish to engage in a forum that focuses on any issues of “speed to market” as they relate to all areas in the product development cycle in relationship to metal casting, rapid manufacturing and rapid prototyping.

It is true that these key audiences are similar in scope to our other social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, and our Fasterestest Group on Linkedin), but this blog allows readers a forum to present more in-depth comments and more detailed lead topics. It is also the social media site where we have found that most Rockford-area business and economic conversation takes place.  So, we thought we’d perpetuate that with this mission statement.

With respect to our slogan, Fasterestest,” that’s simple: we operate under a speed strategy that creates a healthy sense of urgency in our workplace and allows us to deliver some of the “shorterestest” lead times on Earth for the manufacture of our customers’ products and prototypes.

So, please, join, participate, learn, teach and enjoy this site!  It’s ours as much as it is yours.

The Staff of Clinkenbeard