Newton’s Millennium Machine and Tool finds success after Big Dog

Brian Franz and Kris Wondra had one heck of a ride courtesy of Big Dog Motorcycles, but got pretty banged up when the motorcycle maker crashed.

Big Dog was the biggest customer of their company, Millennium Machine and Tool in Newton. It took Millennium from a three-man shop to 49 employees in eight years. At the peak, in 2006, the company had 18 guys whose sole job was to polish aluminum motorcycle wheels.

“It was great while it lasted,” said Franz. “But we saw it coming.”

Big Dog and its $30,000 motorcycles were victims of the housing market collapse. Its sales dropped along with home values and home construction rates. It went out of business about a year ago.

Today, just one guy at Millennium polishes motorcycle wheels, and not for Big Dog. The rest of the 28 employees make parts for civilian and military firearms, agricultural machinery, airplanes, automobiles and motorcycles.

The last six years for Millennium offer a lesson in how to survive the implosion of a main customer followed by the rest the economy. Since hitting bottom in 2009, the company has grown about 30 percent a year. It now runs two shifts, plus some overtime, and is looking to hire three machinists. With the new equipment it is far more productive than it was.

Sales haven’t recovered to the company’s peak year, yet, but Franz and Wondra are close.

Millennium recently added 8,000 square feet to its 30,000-square-foot building at 900 W. First Street. It has added three new complex mills and lathes already this year. Its most recent acquisition was a $600,000-plus mill-turned lathe, which machines parts both as a lathe and a mill simultaneously, reducing the opportunity for production errors.

“The idea is you load it up and let it run,” Wondra said.

Some of the general lessons Franz and Wondra have drawn from their recent history include:

This story was originally published February 6, 2012 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Newton’s Millennium Machine and Tool finds success after Big Dog."