Every December, we author a press release to recap our accomplishments with our customer base and offer commentary on the events of the preceding twelve months. In retrospect, 2016 proved to be another monumental year in both achievement and improvements aimed at future organizational health and prosperity, as well as additional service offerings for our valued clientele.
As 2016 commenced, our company was still completing many loose ends pertaining to the 440 Wenger Drive building refurbishment, now home to our assembly, grinding and EDM departments, and was still in installation mode with the APEC five axis gantry mill. January ushered in the arrival of a medley of contracts across all industries creating a potentially very successful 2016. Well, in retrospect, what a magnificent 2016 it was! This was the year to concentrate on the “people” side of the business and bring us closer as a TEAM! As we look back at 2016, we have spent unprecedented time, energy and money on employee satisfaction, a Vision, Values and Mission statement created by our people for our people that all team members could own and embrace.
Approximately mid-year we invested in three additional Hurco mills in responseAstro Machine Works logo in star surrounded by Astro values to capacity challenges and doubled down again in November with three additional Doosan lathes. Additionally, we embarked on business planning for our short, medium and long term future with an emphasis on preparing for our next growth phase and to add capacity in conjunction with customer demand. This initiative reflects a very proactive stance to keep Astro Machine Works growing and thriving in 2017 and beyond. Other areas of improvement include a newly established website, creating our digital company handbook, implementing an employee portal to our payroll system and an unprecedented amount of training with an emphasis on people development. Once again in 2016, many enhancements were made in the interest of strengthening our roster which included a host of additional hiring of new, and very capable team members. Astro takes the position that people are our number one asset and the substance and the stimulus for our steady and stable growth. We will always look to raise the bar each and every year and establish objectives to promote and maintain excellence within our organization.
As 2017 commences, we are embarking on this year from a position of strength having all these enhancements fully implemented and contributing to our organization on a daily basis. We now turn our attention to the upcoming year as we consider additional areas of improvement to enrich the array of services that we can supply our expanding customer base, as well as addressing required capacity increases and expanding capabilities to better serve our clients. In conclusion, we say from our team to yours; “We look very forward to providing continued support to our existing and future customers with this team in 2017”. Thank you all for a great and memorable year! We wish continued growth and prosperity to your organization and look forward to working with you again in 2017!