The Sum of their Parts 
Firm handles custom assembly more efficiently than manufacturers can for themselves.

Jon Mathisrud recalls the chance his American Durable, Inc. was offered to build a tachometer adapter being distributed by a Minneapolis company. The company, D&D Instruments, had been buying from another supplier, but decided to take a crack at doing more of the work itself.  "We were keeping the manufacturing of that part alive using the technology that had been used for at least a few decades," says Ray Steichen of D&D. "We got together and used Mathisrud’s input to create a much better product by refining the design and reducing the cost." In the end, the price quoted by American Durable was so low that D&D ended up selling the completed part back to its original vendor, which had a long list of other customers buying the same adapter.  "It's the ultimate success story," Mathisrud says with a smile. And success is something the company President has seen more and more of lately.

American Durable specializes in the custom manufacturing of electrical, hydraulic and mechanical parts in a 17,000-square-foot facility it owns in suburban Inver Grove Heights. The company now has a national base of about 100 customers and typically is working on about 50 different projects in the shop at a time.

American Durable goes back to 1977, when Mathisrud began doing assembly work part-time in his Mendota Heights garage. In 1983 he was able to quit his day job as a machine shop general manager and move into rented space in Roseville. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today most of the gadgets American Durable makes are comprised of many different piece parts machined by various vendors and then assembled and tested at a final point. American Durable reduces costs for its customers by assuming most of the work. So, instead of a manufacturer buying parts from 25 different vendors and then contracting with one or more additional firms to do the assembly work, American Durable can take over much of the responsibility. The firm can contract for piece parts with a customer's own vendors to help streamline the process and cut down on a customer's paperwork and time involvement.
Hopkins-based Alliant Techsystems, Inc., for example, had outside companies assembling the cap for the Mark 50 torpedo, but was doing all the parts ordering and inspections itself. When it started using American Durable for assembly, Mathisrud suggested that Alliant let his firm take over the task of dealing with all the other vendors.

"Their comment was, 'You can do that?’" Mathisrud says. Yes, American Durable could. And it did. So Alliant reduced its list of vendors on the project from 18 to just one. American Durable also specializes in helping customers produce prototypes from designs. Like Mathisrud, Steve Unruh started an enterprise, Sled Lock Company, out of his garage. Unruh came up with a locking device that easily secures a snowmobile to a trailer.
Unruh had been building the locks himself, and although they were functional, he approached American Durable about improvements. The success of the device following American Durable's innovation on making it easier to manufacture so it could also look more attractive, be adjustable and corrosion-resistant has already prompted Unruh to design a soon-to-be released related product.