Maxi-Lift Inc. • 800-527-0657 • http://www.maxilift.com
Maxi-Lift, Inc. has been manufacturing elevator buckets for the grain and feed industries since 1973.
Headquartered in Dallas, TX, the company manufactures more than 400 different agricultural buckets and over 80 plastic industrial buckets at its 200,000-sq.-ft. office and plant.
In July, Grain Journal spoke with President Paul Phillips regarding the vital role people play in the success of Maxi-Lift and how focusing on customer needs has prepared the company for the future.
Over the past few years, we have expanded our products that we offer to the grain and feed industry significantly.
First, we introduced a bundled package of elevator buckets, belting, bolts, and splices. This allows customers to make sure their belt matches their buckets, and they can get it on one shipment. This saves money, time, and freight.
Second, we introduced the new HD-STAX, the first stackable elevator bucket that has a thick leading front lip and sides for longer life, less breakage, and more capacity. Plus, it can be shipped and stored in 1/3 the space standard buckets require. The HD-STAX bucket design is heavier than the other standard buckets on the market, which gives our customers greater reliability and total cost of ownership savings.
Third, we introduced the Tiger-CC series in the 10-inch projection allowing customers to move 30,000 bph of grain in a single row of buckets. We have customers all over the world using these new buckets to elevate more grain in a single-row leg. The single row gives the customer better fill and better discharge at the top of the elevator. We also have 60,000-bph bucket elevators in operation as a double row.
We are providing so many additional services now that we have expanded our team. We provide technical training, on-site engineering reviews, online capacity upgrade calculations, and support over the phone to people who need technical and engineering help for their projects.
Customers expect product innovations to help them move more material, more efficiently, with more uptime. It is a requirement now. We are researching what the market wants, before it asks for it. This allows us to be ahead of the curve.
Our company has grown dramatically over the past several years. As we have grown, we have added more resources (people, equipment, machines, and space) to allow us to handle the additional needs of our customers. We also have upgraded our systems and processes to allow for quicker and more efficient movement through our plant.
The keys to our company’s success include three distinct areas.
First, we hire the right people. We want people who will be leaders, not managers. We want people who can lead others to solve problems and push us to the next level. We have a sense of “polite impatience.” Everyone is pulling hard in the same direction, holding everyone else accountable, to make sure we are providing the best products and services to our customers every time. We have a great team that works hard together for the betterment of our customers.
Second, we continue to push product innovation at every level. The ultimate goal is to create more value for our customers by improving product life, reducing costs, and giving them more than they expect. If you listen to your customers, they will help you learn what you need to do to provide a better product and service.
Third and most importantly, we try to deliver more than what our customers expect. I remember a customer who was one of the first people to try our Tiger-Tuffs buckets – he was looking for an extra 25% of life out of our Tiger-Tuff.
The outcome was overwhelmingly successful as the customer received three times the life out of the Tiger-Tuff. This was just one more example of our creating a product that not only met but greatly exceeded our customers’ expectations.
Reprinted from Grain Journal July/August 2015 Issue
