When Dennis Oates joined the small global stainless steel and alloy products company as a board member in 2007, he had ambitious goals. Now as the president, chairman and chief executive officer, these goals are finally about to be achieved. The company was established in 1994 and initially had three facilities specializing in the production of special steel.

"These facilities are plants that I think are distinctive because they are a bit old," he said with a smile. "They have been around for a while, and their operation can be challenging because old facilities involve maintenance."

But in order to be competitive at a world-class level, things need to change. In 2011, Universal decided to invest in new technology and purchased a piece of green space in North Jackson, Ohio. Dennis said this is a major strategic transformation and a particularly important investment "for a company of our size." It provides an opportunity to upgrade the facilities available to steel manufacturers.

Now, Universal has some rare technologies that not many other steelmakers have in the Western Hemisphere, allowing it to continue its development. Despite some minor difficulties on the road due to the pandemic, Dennis and his team plan to continue to expand into the aerospace industry, cooperating with original equipment manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus.

We are still small We are a small competitor in this field. Therefore, we must be more agile and fast.

This is not as easy as it sounds. “Not only do you have to pass industry certifications for different processes, but you also need every OEM whose supply chain you want to sell to approve you,” he explained.

Universal's products are used in critical areas of aircraft, which means that the metal needs to be perfect. "We can't make any mistakes," Dennis added. However, there is no industry-wide standard for obtaining these approvals, and each OEM has its own approach, which makes it particularly challenging.

But Universal is facing the challenge. Despite being "a little guy", Dennis and his team managed to "beyond their core weight", as he put it. "We are still small. We are a small competitor in this field. Therefore, we must be more agile and fast," he said. "We have signed contracts with almost everyone in the aerospace industry in one way, shape or form, or we are selling to their supply chain."

It does this by digitizing a traditionally slow-changing industry. "Our industry is known for being behind in this field, so we are working hard to promote digitalization," Dennis explained. "This provides us with information to make better decisions."

The investment in digitalization has led to a significant increase in quality and output, as well as a reduction in labor and cycle time.​​​ This also means that more energy can be spent to support customers and shorten delivery times. All of this gives Universal a competitive advantage over its larger competitors.

You will learn more than reading a report by walking around, talking with people, and listening carefully to these discussions.

So, despite the size of the company, how does it stand out from the crowd? The first answer is unorthodox. "We want everyone in our factory to challenge the way we do things. We want everyone to be on the workshop, including management," Dennis insisted, explaining that this allows everyone to understand how the business works from the ground up. And enable the management to understand the occurrence of the problem well.

"We are making the best decisions in real time," he shared. "We are not in the office using computers to manage the company by numbers; we are in the workshop with other people to understand what is really going on. Compared with reading the report, walk around, talk to people and listen to these discussions carefully, you will learn More."

The second is the ability to move quickly, which is more challenging for large organizations. "I think our responsiveness and speed in dealing with customers makes us different," Dennis reflected. "You can call our customers. I am very confident that they will tell you that if they have questions or questions, they know they will get a quick answer from Universal."

The third seems to be simple: very much focus on building relationships with customers. "Our customers basically know everyone. They can call me; they can call anyone," he said. "We do our best to ensure that the entire organization maintains close contact with our customers from bottom to top."

Dennis believes that people want to work with people who make things easier, and being so small means that the company can do just that. "The fact that we are small is an advantage. Sometimes the bigger you are, the slower you are, the more bureaucratic you are, and the more rules and regulations you implement, the slower your decision-making," he revealed.

With this concept, XiaoUniversal is indeed becoming a big competitor.

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