Capps Manufacturing goes ‘big’ to win new business

At 84, Barney Capps, president of Capps Manufacturing, drives a golf cart decked in Wichita State University Shocker yellow and black around the sprawling factory floor.

Capps, who still comes into the office every day, started the business in his garage part time in the 1960s. In 1983, he left his full-time job to run what was then Capps Machine.

Today, the company, headquartered at 2121 S. Edwards, takes up a good part of a city block, operates in more than 300,000 square feet and employs 160.

Capps’ son, Ron, is vice president and co-owns the company with his dad.

Capps Manufacturing is a supplier to the aerospace industry.

It builds its own tooling and does its own stretch forming, heat treating, trimming, chemical processing, painting and machining of metal tooling and parts.

“What sets us apart is the extent of the stretch forming equipment that we have,” said Don Smith, Capps Manufacturing senior manager. It operates one of the largest stretch form presses in the country.

“There’s nobody outside of Spirit that has as much” in the area, Smith said. In fact, only six to eight other companies in the country offer similar capabilities in stretch forming.

In addition, “one of the things that sets us apart is we do big real well,” Smith said. “We’re large part friendly.”

It can make parts that are more than 200 inches long and 8 feet wide.

“That’s part of the reason we have our own heat treat and our own chemical processing,” Smith said. “It’s to support those endeavors.”

Its aluminum heat treat furnace is one of the largest privately owned furnaces in the Midwest, he said.

“The Capps haven’t been afraid to invest in the business,” Smith said. “Barney and Ron have both been very daring. They have haven’t shown any fear in pursuing the side of the business that fits our core competency.”

The company’s customer list includes it’s biggest customer, Spirit AeroSystems, along with Bombardier, Boeing, Cessna, Beechcraft, GKN Aerospace, Nordam, Lockheed Martin and others.

About 30 percent of its work is for the military and split between fixed wing and rotary aircraft. The remainder is split 50-50 between general aviation and commercial airliners.

Boeing’s production rate increases on the popular 737 single-aisle airplane has had a positive impact on the business.

“It’s been welcome,” Smith said.

Capps Manufacturing also has work on a number of new programs, such as Bombardier’s CSeries, the Bombardier 7000 and 8000, the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, the Learjet 85 and others.

“We live and die by new aircraft,” Smith said. But new programs also require large investments, including investments in tooling, to take them on, Smith said.

As the company grows and brings on work, Capps invests in additional equipment, much of which is bought used.

It bought its massive stretch forming machine from Lockheed Martin, after Lockheed failed to sell it at an auction.

Smith showed photos of equipment Lockheed had up for sale to Barney Capps, who was interested in the big machine.

So Smith went out to take a look.

Ultimately, they bought the 750,000-pound machine and brought it back to Wichita in 17 semi-trucks loads. Three sections of it weighed more than 60,000 pounds a piece. In all, it took about 10 months to dismantle, transport, prepare the building, reassemble and get the equipment operating.

“It’s a piece of equipment that sets us apart from anybody else,” Smith said.

On a recent day, two employees were loading sheets of 60-inch by 144-inch aluminum for stretching and forming.

It took only a minute to shape the part over a rounded tool, a move that stretched the sheet by 11 inches.

The sheet was trimmed, put through chemical treatment and paint, and shipped to Spirit, where it becomes part of a Boeing 737 fuselage.

At times, the company builds and shapes parts other shops haven’t been able to, Smith said.

It’s built parts with “really crazy shapes that are really tough to form,” he said. “We have a great deal of forming expertise beginning with Barney himself. The Barney factor is really what sets us apart. We just make some really incredible stuff.”

Capps Manufacturing, like other suppliers, felt the effects from the economic downturn that hit the aviation industry more than five years ago and cut 10 to 15 percent of its staff.

Since then, it’s added back all the jobs.

“What we’ve done, I couldn’t do by myself,” Barney Capps said. It takes a good team.

Long term, the plan is to “just get bigger and better at what we do,” he said.

This story was originally published November 28, 2014 at 1:09 PM with the headline "Capps Manufacturing goes ‘big’ to win new business."