CICERO – Figuring out how to fix 100 year old public water works equipment may be a rare project for most gear making companies, but for Circle Gear & Machine Company, it’s not all that unusual.
“Every day there’s something new around here, it’s never dull,” said Circle Gear’s corporate President Michael McKernin.
McKernin spoke while reviewing a photo of the broken equipment on his computer screen. He was sitting in his office located in Circle Gear’s new 75,000 square foot facility in Cicero Illinois.
McKernin joined Circle Gear nearly 30 years ago, after working for two other gear companies and completing an engineering degree. Circle Gear remains family-owned, but McKernin runs day-to-day operations. When he first joined the company in the 1980s, seven employees were on hand. Now there are over 60.
“I came in at when we were at 31st and Kostner with a 6000 square foot building,” McKirnen said. “We moved to Cicero in 1993, and bought this building in February 2014.”
McKirnen works closely with Tom Murray, who serves as the company’s sales engineer. Before coming to Circle Gear, Murray owned his own machine shop for 30 years. Murray says his experience in running a business in the same industry has been very valuable when estimating time and cost for custom made projects.
Circle Gear’s bread and butter is custom gearing and reverse engineering. They make gears for an array of industrial uses, including crane and agricultural equipment.
“Everything you see that has rotation in it, we make,” Murray said.
The market demand for gears has changed over the years, though. At one time the printing industry was a big customer. Now newspapers have a fraction of the equipment they used to have.
McKirnen agreed. “Gears these days are higher quality and more efficient, Everyone’s looking for small, faster, lighter, quicker – where as back 30 years ago, it was bigger, rough and tumble.”
Twenty years ago, Circle Gear made a lot more industrial grade parts. Now they’re making higher quality, high precision gearing. The materials have changed, and improved, and better alternatives are coming, such as alloys being developed in European countries.
“We service primarily two types of customers,” McKirnen said. “Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) where they’ve gone through the process, designed the gear and then come to us to make a few or thousands.”
“The other type is the guy that needs our assistance for a replacement part. That’s one of our strengths. We can take a broken part, reverse engineer it and give them what they need to get back to work,” McKirnen said. “Our expertise is to look at the original part, update and upgrade it from its original form. We try to provide something equivalent to the original, or better.”
Circle Gear boasts of employing skilled machinists across the board. They, like their associates in the manufacturing industry, say it is hard to find young people to train for the abundance of jobs available.
Much of that reflects today’s culture, McKirnen said, because kids aren’t taking apart their bikes like they used to do. Most of them are, instead, playing video games.
“There’s not a lot of glamor in this industry,” McKirnen said, “But for our guys, the idea is to leave at the end of the day, and you’ve produced a tangible product. You can see what you’ve done and put in a good day’s work. You can feel good about it.”
Labor talent shortage is a complaint is one that’s been sounded time and time again over the past 20 years, Murray said.
“It’s always difficult to attract the best talent, but I’m confident the industry will survive. I don’t worry about the future – America is built on increasing productivity – it’s the way it’s always been and always will be.”
Besides finding labor talent, the high cost of insurance is another challenge for Circle Gear.
“How should that system be fixed? Now you’re talking politics,” Murray said. “I don’t think there are simple answers.” Having had his own business for 30 years, Murray said he’s very aware of workmen’s compensation insurance costs and abuses.
“We emphasize safety here in order to avoid those problems as much as possible. It’s an oversimplification, but it’s in our interest to look out for our employees,” Murray said. “Skilled laborers are an investment. After 20 years, you care about your employees, they become like family.”
“We’re not a sweat shop, we produce a high quality product by skilled labor and it takes all of us working together to put the product out the door,” McKirnen said. “I need every guy that’s here to be healthy and able to work.”
McKirnen takes a lot of pride in what Circle Gear has become over the 30 years he’s been there.
“Take a look around. We were just a little alley shop when we started to move in the right direction. When you look at the whole deal, and I guess the pride is there,” he said. “But we’re also very proud of our customer service, taking care of our clients and helping them to move forward.”
McKirnen has been married for 30 years, and is also very proud of his two children who’ve made it through college and are successful in their the fields of work.
Murray has been married for 35 years and has four grown children and a one-year old grandchild.
When not working, McKirnen likes to fish and scuba dive. Murray coaches softball at Richards High School and tinkers with his 1974 Triumph convertible.
But when it’s all said and done, it’s pretty clear making gears, fixing 100 year old public works equipment and getting it back into service brings more satisfaction than just about anything else Circle Gear’s Mike McKirnen or Tom Murray does.
Circle Gear and Machine Company is located at 1515 South 55th Court in Cicero, Illinois or at www.circlegear.com.
First published in TMA’s July 2015 News Bulletin. By TMA News Editor Fran Eaton.
