The first order of business was erecting a 55,000-square-foot addition to house the new 3,000-ton press and support equipment. The new press, driven by eight 1,000-horsepower motors, arrived in January of 2007 and was up and operating in May.

Then Scot Forge began work on the heat treat and machine shop addition, a 20,000-square-foot addition to the main building. The heat treat addition was finished in September, but new assets are being added continually in the machine shop.

In August construction began on the 10,000-square-foot building. The new facility was erected to house a new upsetter press, a horizontal press very similar to a closed die press. The upsetter press was custom designed press by Scot Forge engineering staff and was up and running by November.

"We have the staff that can custom design any piece of equipment we need for our own applications and that is really invaluable because of the different product lines we get into," Stoney said. "The upsetter press makes parts for the oil drilling industry right now and we hope to expand that product line in the future," Stoney said.

Scot Forge has roots back to 1893 when it started in the Chicago area and was known as Atlas Forgings. In the late 1970s it became Scot Forge. Now there are three Scot Forge locations. At the 8001 Winn Road, Spring Grove, Ill., facility, the plant manufactures custom forgings and large rolled rings.

The Franklin Park facility, 9394 W. Belmont Ave., makes small hammer forgings, and in Clinton the plant manufactures custom forgings and is a major supplier to steel warehouses for round bars.

The Clinton plant started because Scot Forge wanted a plant in Wisconsin. In the late 1970s there were gas allocations in areas of the country. Scot Forge needed a second location to obtain gas for operation and further expansion. The Clinton site was also adjacent to a railroad track and company officials thought the farm community would offer good workers.

"The management of the company at that time really wanted to get out and get in a farm community where there was a strong work ethic. People weren't afraid to get dirty and put in a hard day's work. It was really a selling point," Stoney said.

During its time in Clinton, the plant took off. It grew from 13 employees to 192 workers. One of the company's strengths was that it remained 100 percent employee owned. That means that employees own different amounts of stock in the company.

"It's a stimulus to retain employees. It's based on years of service and a percentage of income," Stoney said.

Although employees can get yearly dividends, the stock itself can't be cashed in until retirement. To keep employees actively involved in the company, Scot Forge holds monthly meetings where all the financial information of the company is shared with employees.

"We explain to each shift how the company is doing financially and what projects are going on. We talk about safety and quality. Occasionally we have guests from Spring Grove, Ill, who discuss sales. The shop is closed down and everyone attends," Stoney said.

The company involvement of employees appears to be working as shown by the extremely low turnover rates at the plant. This year about 25 new employees came on board doing an array of work material handling, sawing, machining, forging, maintenance, warehousing and machinery building.

Although employees have always been involved in the company, when Scot Forge held a Lean manufacturing event employees really stepped in to help. People at the event left the room and took drawings to everyone on the shop floor to get ideas.

"People on the shop floor live it every day. They know what hinders them from producing parts. They are the best ones to help us become more productive," Stoney said.

Scot Forge then embarked on a massive Lean manufacturing process, a methodology to reduce wasted movements, materials and more, in 2006.

"Everybody got to touch the proposed plant layout and critique it. That's really how we got started on our expansion. Our employees are so much a part of what we do and the ideas they give us," Stoney said. "The expansion grew as a result of employees ideas and more square footage was added to the original proposed project. Because of the ideas they had and the sense it made, the project grew considerably."

The employees continue to tweak the layout during machine additions and other expansions.

Scot Forge continues to focus on diversifying its product offerings. One of its new products are the bars used in oil drilling. With the price of oil, there is obviously a great stimulus to keep drilling and exploring.

In addition to bars used in oil drilling, the company will continue to offer to steel warehouses with a large array of sizes and grades of steel bars to provide to their customers.

"One of the lessons we learned is that we are not susceptible to the downturns that come in certain market segments. We learned in the early 1980s that diversification was important," Stoney said. "A result of our diversification is one of the reasons we are as busy as we are."