In 1994, Lee Allison got the crazy idea that he wanted to create his own line of neckties. The Lee Allison Company was officially launched from a Chicago brownstone in the spring of 1995. From the beginning, Lee Allison neckties (or four-in-hands as he prefers to call them) were always a little bit different, whimsical but sophisticated, and of the highest quality. The difference was that Lee actually designed his own fabric rather than simply buy what the silk mills had for sale.

Over time, the offerings have grown to include bowties, cummerbund sets, formal vests, pocket squares, the occasional pillow, and suspenders (braces, for you Anglophiles). And in 2002, Lee Allison Company added a line of fine cotton dress shirts, its first non-silk offering.  The Bucktown-based company also creates custom-made shirts, suits, sport jackets and tuxedos for a small but discerning clientele.

HB Coatings, LLC is a thermal spray, welding and machine shop. They specialize in rebuilding equipment components and in upgrading new parts to make them last longer. Their top products include HVOF chrome replacement, flame spray, arc spray, spray and fuse TIG, and MIG Welding Machining and Grinding 

HB Coatings primarily operates in the welding repair business/industry within the miscellaneous repair services sector.  Their special capabilities are thermal spray coatings (tungsten/chrome carbide, bronze, Babbitt, aluminum, thermal barrier coatings) and high tolerance grinding for large and small components 

Written by Steve Schiera, IMEC Regional Manager

Net Promoter Score (NPS) can be a valuable tool for measuring customer satisfaction, increasing customer lifetime value and reducing customer turnover. The happier your customers are the more referrals you will get and the more successful and profitable your business will be.

Because loyalty is so important to profitable growth, measuring and managing it makes good sense.  The saying “What gets measured gets done” is extremely relevant with customer satisfaction.  Many organizations have no method to obtain this critical information and many existing customer survey approaches have not proven to be very effective. Their complexity makes it difficult to get responses from your customers and they often generate flawed results.

By substituting a single question for the complex black box of the typical customer satisfaction survey, companies can actually put results to use and focus on the task of stimulating growth.

Written by Jim Dunbar, IMEC Marketing Coordinator

How much to do you know about your current market position? How are you gaining knowledge about the marketplace to launch a new product? What about expanding your current product line into a new market?   Maybe you even want to diversify into several new markets.  There are numerous reasons you should know your current and future marketplaces and they are enormously beneficial to the health and growth of your business.

Written by Jim Dunbar, IMEC Marketing Coordinator

IMEC is very pleased to announce that Doran Scales, Inc. of Batavia, IL has completed the ISO 9001:2015 registration, demonstrating their on-going commitment to total customer satisfaction and quality improvement. The single most instrumental factor which has established Doran’s strong position in the market is a straight forward desire to “Provide the best customer service in the industry."

Sommers & Fahrenbach is a full-service offset and digital printer.  They are fully equipped to meet your needs from design through fulfillment. Environmentally responsible, they have green practices in place throughout our facility. We deliver quality printed materials to customers in Chicago and around the world. On time. At a competitive price. Made in the U.S.A.

They offer a number of services, including finishing, direct mail, and pre-press.  They have the tools to get the job done and the knowledge to use them.

Image Industries, Inc. not only provides cutting-edge equipment technology that they design and build themselves, they also provide state-of-the-art fasteners and other innovative stud welding products, equipment, and services.

Image Industries, Inc. is one of only a few companies that offer complete stud welding solutions and offers all the stud welding supplies to meet your needs. As a stud welding supply industry leader, they pride themselves on providing stud welding application expertise, exceptional customer service, and value-added assembly services to help you meet your most demanding fastening requirements.

Atomoweld was established in 1938.  Today the company services customers from all over the country.  The backbones of their business are rebuilding and repairing intricate molds, waterlines for plastic injection, and die casting dies. Their expertise ranges from welding the smallest component of a mold, to over-sized machine apparatus, such as shafts, cams and gears.

Atomoweld welds all tool steels: aluminum, bronze and stainless. The key to their success is their ability to match any metal with the same weld metal, apply it so that it bonds homogenously without distortion, has the same grain structure and hardness, and is dense enough to be polished to the same surface finish as the original tool.

CSI Homes is a modular home manufacturer that has been in business since 1974.  Their homes are constructed in their factory then transported and assembled on-site.  This minimizes the work "on-site" and reduces the time and cost of work.

With more than 40 years of experience, they are dedicated to focusing on people and delivering quality in modular home construction.  They build the home that customers want once an order is made.  This means they customize everything to the individual as chosen by the buyer.

For close to 75 years METOMIC Corporation has been manufacturing parts from brass and aluminum for numerous industries including lamp and lighting, furniture, fixtures, POP displays, and the signage industry.

From 500 parts to 10,000, from stock parts to custom, METOMIC is a great source for brass or aluminum screw machine parts.  Their manufacturing expects can guide you towards the best and most economical solutions.

Rockford Ball Screw offers a mature product line built on the highest performance design standards.  Their product line includes cataloged, non-cataloged, standard, and non-standard offerings.  They offer one of the largest inventories of Ball Screw and ACME Screw product lines in the industry and are continually growing.

Rockford Ball Screw customers receive the highest level of quality, service, and engineering expertise. Their specially trained staff and state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and equipment work together  to effectively fulfill customer needs – whether they require standard or custom offerings.  They are committed to partnering with customers at the front end of projects to put a program in place for success across the entire life cycle – from prototyping through production.