Manufacturing Transformed
07. Heather Charlton

Heather Charlton is co-owner of Free Force Machining Technology Inc. in Ontario Canada. Free Force is a 100% Swiss CNC machining business that serves many industries with its AS9100 and ISO 9001 certifications. Heather and her husband Steve started the business in 2007 during the height of the financial crisis, with a new toddler, and she was pregnant with their second child! Talk about a bold move! Seventeen years later they have a thriving business with 13 CNC Swiss machines. Formerly on E2 Shoptech, Heather decided she needed an upgrade to their ERP and ProShop has been live on the shop floor since early 2022. It’s made a huge difference to all aspects of the shop, and has reignited Heather’s passion for the business. In fact, she said that without adopting ProShop, she may have decided to leave the business as it was such a challenge to run the business on E2.

About Free Force Machining Technology:
Free Force Machining Technology Inc. was founded in 2007. We specialize in CNC machining of precision parts for today’s high technology industries. We are Small Part Specialists with a focus on parts less than 1.25″ (approx. 32mm) in diameter. From prototypes to production runs we are your one course supplier. Free Force is committed to Zero Defect Production.

Follow Heather and Free Force Machining Technology:
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00:00:04:21 – 00:00:10:23
Unknown
Welcome to the Manufacturing Transform show. I appreciate you being here.

00:00:11:00 – 00:00:51:01
Unknown
Yes. well, you and I have talked a number of times. We even did a couple episodes of the implementation series. When you first joined us. but that’s been a couple of years now. So, let’s start by having you share a little bit about, your, your background and the shop itself or the audience.

00:00:51:03 – 00:00:58:01
Unknown
Cool.

00:00:58:03 – 00:01:16:10
Unknown
Oh, well.

00:01:16:12 – 00:01:40:18
Unknown
No. Oh, wow. Amazing. Oh, yes. Of course.

00:01:40:20 – 00:02:13:15
Unknown
Wow. Well, if you can get through that period of time with everything you had going on and the the, recession, you, the the rest of the time should be easy, right? So.

00:02:13:17 – 00:02:19:15
Unknown
Yeah. Wow.

00:02:19:17 – 00:02:34:21
Unknown
Amazing.

00:02:34:23 – 00:02:46:15
Unknown
Okay.

00:02:46:17 – 00:02:59:03
Unknown
Yeah.

00:03:04:11 – 00:03:27:03
Unknown
Well, that’s a good partnership and good balance. I know we’ve had other customers with similar relationships couples and business side and technical side. And they, you got to have those two to really have a strong business. So So but so you’re kind of heavy in Swiss. so small. Mostly round parts ish. What industries? What? Yeah.

00:03:27:05 – 00:03:36:21
Unknown
You only do Swiss. Okay.

00:03:36:23 – 00:03:49:02
Unknown
Okay.

00:04:04:07 – 00:04:14:19
Unknown
And what, quality certifications does the company have?

00:04:14:21 – 00:04:26:05
Unknown
All right.

00:04:26:07 – 00:04:51:15
Unknown
Got it. Interesting. Okay. So, before you decided to get pro shop, can you just kind of paint a picture of maybe. What? Why you decided to look for a system, a different system, what you were using, what wasn’t working well enough to.

00:04:57:14 – 00:05:05:05
Unknown
Okay.

00:05:05:07 – 00:05:27:04
Unknown
Sure.

00:05:37:06 – 00:05:48:16
Unknown
Yeah.

00:06:05:02 – 00:06:37:10
Unknown
Sure.

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Unknown
Right.

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Unknown
Right.

00:06:53:04 – 00:07:07:21
Unknown
well.

00:07:07:23 – 00:07:28:18
Unknown
You are very good with dates. I could not. I know when my kids are born. I know my wife’s birthday. I know my own birthday, but that’s about it. Wow. That’s that’s,

00:07:28:19 – 00:07:32:11
Unknown
Well.

00:07:32:13 – 00:07:43:14
Unknown
Right. Sure.

00:07:51:02 – 00:07:56:20
Unknown
Right.

00:07:56:21 – 00:08:01:17
Unknown
And.

00:08:01:19 – 00:08:13:20
Unknown
And, And how was your, training process? Your onboarding process? Like.

00:08:13:22 – 00:08:22:04
Unknown
Oh, okay.

00:08:22:06 – 00:08:27:11
Unknown
Okay.

00:08:42:15 – 00:09:01:09
Unknown
Oh, that’s a long time.

00:09:01:10 – 00:09:31:09
Unknown
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Were you, just really wanting to make sure that nothing got missed? Maybe. Or, I mean, I know running parallel is is common, although we have some clients that, you know, rip the Band-Aid off after, like, 2 or 3 weeks of parallel, they’re like, this is enough. This is too much.

00:09:31:11 – 00:09:56:05
Unknown
Right.

00:09:56:07 – 00:10:01:10
Unknown
Right.

00:10:01:12 – 00:10:12:21
Unknown
Got it.

00:10:27:18 – 00:10:31:09
Unknown
Right.

00:10:31:11 – 00:10:44:05
Unknown
Okay. Just in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Right.

00:11:01:17 – 00:11:12:22
Unknown
Right. Right.

00:11:13:00 – 00:11:13:18
Unknown
Right.

00:11:13:18 – 00:52:34:11

00:52:34:11 – 00:52:51:20
Unknown
You.