NORTH BRANCH, Michigan – Michigan Fastener, launched almost a decade ago, has largely remained a well-kept secret, even in its home state. The company’s early focus was on perfecting production rather than marketing. With continued investments in production and inspection equipment, however, it now has the capacity and quality control program to meet the needs of new customers nationwide.
“It’s a big deal because we have a lot of local people that don’t even know about me in Michigan,” said Jon Will, company owner and president. Michigan Fastener is located in North Branch, about 75 miles north of Detroit on Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The company provides a wide range of fasteners for its two largest, the pallet and shed industries. Michigan Fastener produces both bulk machine nails as well as coil nails.
“We have introduced many items to the market,” Will explained. “We have the 113 Viking nail; it runs in all types of automated machines. These have very nice, clean threads, a bright, shiny chrome nail and are extremely clean. This helps our customers speed up manufacturing with less downtime. We’ve really dialed in that process in the last six months, and I can honestly say, hands-down, we have the best nail on the market.”
“This is the same for the coil nail,” he continued. “We offer small coil, all different counts. We offer a 4,500-count box, a 9,000-count box, a 14,000-count box and many others. We offer the hi-load coil nail in all different sizes at all different points, including a no point, a diamond point, a blunt diamond point, even the clinch point. We have many different sizes, anything from 1-inch to 4-inch with any thread type.”
The company has invested in a washing line that guarantees a bright chrome-like product. Because it is a clean nail, it eliminates concerns about steel dust and shavings compromising the performance of nailing machines.
Clean, Consistent Nails: Fastener Washing and Laser Retina Quality Inspection
“If you go to a pallet plant and look at nailing machines, there’s often nail dust,” Will commented. “There can be metal shavings, and nails can get mucked up. They get stuck in the rails and bowls. With this new cleaning process, they run perfectly. It makes for a very clean process.”
Michigan Fasteners has also invested in a laser retina inspection unit that all nails run through, allowing Will to guarantee nail quality to customers. The machine flips the nails upside down, measures the length and checks for any irregularities. Any off-spec nails are identified and kicked out.
According to Will, the two most common problems he sees in competitor products are off-center heads and metal burrs, two issues that result in nailer problems. “We’ve taken all of our competitors’ nails from overseas and the United States,” he said. “We’ve inspected their nails and put them through quality tests. We make a better nail.”
He also emphasized that many import suppliers are bringing in nails that are not true to the stated size and have smaller heads. Michigan Fastener, he stressed, meets the actual specification, resulting in more nails for your money while eliminating machine jams.
Will added, “We are committed to providing top-quality nails to customers. We changed our steel grade to an extremely hard grade steel to prevent bend and shiners when driving into hardwood. A lot of the automated pallet machines run some hard or frozen wood and to stop shortfalls our wire grade plays a very important role.”
Michigan Fastener also builds its own heavy-duty pallets to ensure that stacked pallets of nails don’t fail. The manufacturer tries to meet specialized customer requests. For example, some customers ask for nails to be shipped in gaylord bins, and Michigan Fastener honors this request.
Will is particularly proud of its coil nail lineup, having invested in additional capacity to produce large coil nails for the automated pallet manufacturing industry. They fit in any machine that uses large coils, such as Raycos and Woodpeckers. “We have been doing hi-load coil, but we have added two new hi-load machines to increase our availability to customers, so we can really expand production on that.”
Michigan Fastener also offers Mi-Fast (MAX) and Everwin pneumatic tools for customers accustomed to getting their tooling from their nail suppliers.
Competitive Pricing for ‘By the Skid’ Orders
Whether consistently delivering a superior-quality nail, offering attractive pricing, or providing short lead times, Michigan Fastener is laser-focused on customer service.
“We give companies in the shed and pallet industry a competitive edge to compete with the largest manufacturers,” Will said. “There’s often a big difference in pricing nails with purchasing truckload versus by the pallet. We understand there is a difference in price often because of shipping charges. We work hard to give that competitive edge for our customers that are only able to place smaller orders. We want customers to be able to get the best price possible, even if it is one skid, five skids, 10 skids, or a full truckload. We have a pricing tier that fits every customer’s budget. We can offer pricing to help close that gap.”
Short Lead Times
Keeping customer inventory on hand is a key focus of the company’s customer service efforts. It purchases steel from Liberty Steel in Illinois, and regularly keeps between 800,000 and 1 million pounds of steel rod in stock.
Will also has finished inventory ready to go for repeat business. “For customers who regularly buy nails from us, we keep inventory for them, so it’s never a question about having stock,” he said. Usually, it takes a few months to understand a new customer’s ordering pattern. With new customers, orders are a maximum of two or three weeks out, and sooner if an order can be added to a scheduled production run.
The company has come a long way since its humble beginnings. Will started in cold heading right out of high school. He worked for 18 years for a company that manufactured bolts and supplied the ‘Big Three’ automakers in the United States, but he was an entrepreneur at heart. He eventually installed a nailing machine in the garage attached to his house and started making nails, even while he still had his day job.
“That lasted two years, but it was so loud all the time that my wife was going crazy,” he recalled. “It was so loud all the time.” Then he built a pole barn and continued adding to it. The company currently has about 24,000 square feet of production and storage space. It employs 26 employees.
Reducing Supply Risk through Domestic Sourcing
Over the past few years, many companies have focused a lot of effort on establishing suppliers in the U.S. or neighboring countries to minimize risk. Mitigating supply chain risk has become a strategic initiative for many manufacturers. The same thought process is a consideration for pallet suppliers. Pallet makers that relied on imported nails were severely impacted by shipping container costs and delays during the shipping container crunch. As a U.S. manufacturer with a U.S. steel supplier, Michigan Fastener was unphased by those international challenges and was able to help many pallet customers through those tough times.
However, as international container availability has improved, some customers have returned to buying imported product. “People can have short memories,” Will reflected, “but you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket,” he advised. “Overseas supply is never guaranteed.”
A Family Business
Michigan Fastener is very much a family business, with Jon’s four children, wife, Charity, and mom, Julia, all actively involved. His sons, Logan and Marshall, work in production.
“I’m so proud of these boys,” he said. “They have really taken initiative. They know these machines like the back of their hand, and they work 12 or 14 hours every day. They’re here, and they have a drive for perfection.”
Daughter Dallas, along with Charity and Julia, work in the office. “Dallas came in here about seven months ago, and she’s taking initiative,” he said, “I’m so proud.” She is handling customer service and scheduling. With the dedication shown by the children, he believes the company’s succession plan is firmly in place.
Will acknowledged that during the company’s rapid expansion, quality was sometimes inconsistent prior to its latest machinery investments. “Some of those customers won’t come back, and that’s just the way business is, but that did not stop me,” he reflected. “I continued to strive for perfection.
“We now have a highly trained work-force and also continue to train employees and add new products, production and equipment to our process. If you give us a shot, we will do our best to please you,” he concluded. We will be extremely competitive on pricing for small companies and large companies alike.”
For more information on Michigan Fastener, visit https://michiganfastener.com or call (810) 627-1587.
