In the beginning and for the first nine years of operation, there were two employees: my wife Geraldine and me. Geraldine had a degree in accounting and an excellent understanding of business management. I graduated from Greer Machine Shop Training in Chicago, Ill. in the spring of 1958. After graduation, I pursued the machine shop trade as a machinist and tool & die maker; eventually retiring as a tool engineer from IBM Corporation after 23 years service.
From the beginning our mission was to create a company to provide the customer with a single source for attaining a high quality, turnkey manufacturing service that encompasses every phase of fabrication from single component development through mass production.
April 1988 we leased 1,250 square feet of space in a warehouse and moved our operation from our garage to a new location. At the new location, we expanded our floor space by leasing adjacent warehouse space until eventually we had leased all the warehouse space available at that location: 10,250 square feet.
November 2003, we moved our operation to our present location: 3009 A.W. Grimes Blvd. Pflugerville, Texas. Here we have 25,000 square feet - more room for expansion and an excellent work environment. Immediately after moving to this location we begin to add high-tech, multi-axis equipment to increase both our capability and capacity. We built an atmospherically and temperature controlled room to house our product inspection operation. February 17, 2005, The Certification Body of TUV AMERICA INC. awarded us an ISO 13485:2003 quality certification, a quality milestone we had diligently pursued for years.
In January 2006 we began a formal in-house apprenticeship program to train and cross-train our employees in accordance with a curriculum that ranges from basic entry level machine shop practices to the most advanced job planning and CNC programming. This apprenticeship is conducted in compliance with The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) and Approved American National Standard (ANSI); and in conjunction with our ISO 13485:2003 quality standards. We believe that training should not be done just because it is a quality regulatory requirement; it should be done voluntarily, on a regular scheduled basis, to teach the individual employee new skills and further hone the over-all skill level of the workforce; and to improve the over-all performance of the business. We believe that proper training properly applied will definitely increase our competitive edge in the manufacture of medical devices.
For more than a quarter century we have worked closely with our customers to recognize and resolve mutual quality issues. We share our technology, manufacturing and development expertise with our customers to help them introduce new ideas, new concepts, and new innovations to the marketplace. In the process of developing and introducing new products to the marketplace, the customer has entrusted us
with confidential and proprietary information that involves materials, processes and subject matter. We take great pride in the mutual trust we share with our customers and we are well aware that we have a sacred obligation to never betray that trust.
We have grown from a small two-person operation to a more formative single source provider with more than a quarter century of demonstrated performance; and we are enthusiastically focused on a future for providing the same high quality service. We are a recognized member of the manufacturing community with an established organizational business infrastructure, complete with rules, policies, and procedures, and the means for monitoring, measuring and regulating our performance. Through years of planning and sharing and remaining committed and steadfast to our ideals, we have been very successful in achieving our stated mission: to provide the customer with a single source for attaining a high quality, turnkey manufacturing service. We plan to continue being a company of integrity; built on high moral values and worthy principles. Our customers will always be considered business partners; not just a self serving means to generate revenue. With us, quality is standard; not a slogan. We will continue to share our technology, manufacturing and development expertise with our customers to help them introduce new ideas, new concepts, and new innovations to the marketplace; never compromising our commitment to provide them with the highest quality product attainable.
Ray H. Banister
Owner / Director
Banister Tool, Inc.
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