Building the Valley: Upper Burrell business proves essential through pandemic

When the pandemic halted and disrupted businesses throughout the region, Quality Machined Products of Upper Burrell missed only a few beats.

The family-owned tool and die shop manufactures screw machining parts for the defense and transportation industries. They are located in the Westmoreland Business and Research Park.

Although not considered an essential business initially, the company quickly filed papers for that designation with the state when Gov. Tom Wolf closed most businesses March 19, 2020.

Though the business was shut down the for only four days, the company quickly had to replace batteries in about 24 of its CNC high-precision machines to prevent them from losing their memories, said Greg Ringling, operations manager.

“The biggest thing was that the covid-19 pandemic was an unknown factor,” he said. “Nobody had gone through it before.”

After filing the paperwork to be recognized as an essential business, Quality Machined Products received the status quickly, Ringling said.

Many of the company’s customers are essential businesses. For example, Quality Machined Products produces the screws used to manufacture breathing apparatuses, a must in the safety industry, according to Jill Seder, human resources generalist.

“We had enough customers to put us in the essential business category,” Ringling said.

Ringling credits the longevity of the company, established in 1946, to a diverse and loyal customer base.

During the pandemic, the company instituted sanitary and social distancing practices that went beyond the recommendations of health agencies, Ringling said.

Door handles were wiped off so many times in a day, one employee joked about the handles wearing down, he said.

Also, having managers on the floor to answer employee questions and concerns was a big help, Ringling said.

Walter Stammer, 81, president and owner, works on the floor running machines. He is joined in that effort by his two sons who are vice presidents of the company, according to Seder.

“If you had questions and concerns, we could speak with workers right here and get it resolved in hours or a day,” Ringling said. “In bigger corporations, it might take weeks to get something resolved.”

Because there were only a small number of employees who tested positive for covid-19, the company has been able to keep running three shifts a day, weekdays, with some shifts on the weekend, he said.

Quality Machined Products employs about 37 workers and is looking to hire more, Seder said. Like other companies, it’s a challenging time for the business to find workers.

“In this world, there’s always a challenge. You got to roll with the punches,” Ringling said. “First there was the pandemic, then the challenge to find new employees and now there’s a raw material shortage for some materials you can’t get for eight months.”

While many of the company’s workers are longtime employees, Ringling wants prospective workers to know the environment isn’t like the old machine shops from decades ago.

“These are all computer-operated machines,” he said. “Basically you will use a computer all day long, and the work is starting to attract younger people.”

Anyone interested in working at the Upper Burrell company should call Seder at 724-339-2360, ext. 22.