Focusing on performance: management buyout of Hayes Brake results in formation of HB Performance Systems; no brakes on growth

Diesel Progress North American Edition, Sept, 2005 by Mike Brezonick

Product development is a two-track process at HB Performance Products, Nelson said. Each business group is responsible on the short term for developing new products using current technologies, while more long-range development falls under the charter of the company's Innovation and Advanced Development Group. "The whole idea is not to have a development group that's developing today's technologies," Nelson said. "Our separate businesses can do that for our customers out to the next cycle or two.

"What the advanced development group works on are technologies that are a leapfrog from where they are today. Half of what they work on may never go to market at all, but we think it's important to give them the room to be able to look at things that maybe aren't commercially practical today, but could be an answer down the road."

Even now, there are potential gains to be had on the product side by looking at how technologies in one market might work in another, McNally said. "When you look at our micro hydraulic brake disc systems for bicycles, we're talking micro movements of liquid under high pressure," he said. "it's small volumes compared to what a traditional hydraulic application might be.

"Traditionally in Specialty Products, bigger was better. Steel was relatively low cost and it didn't make a difference. Today mass is cost so how you can design and configure and put strengths into different alloys, it can make a big difference to our customers. They're looking at some of the things we can do like micro hydraulics and saying, hey, can you do something like that for us?

"It's like they were drinking out of a 5 lb. coffee cup and all of a sudden, we show them how maybe they can have the same amount of coffee in a regular-sized coffee cup. They're very interested."