From Typewriters to CNC Grinders: 50 Years of Change at NTM

As we approach our fiftieth anniversary in business, I want to reflect on the changes in manufacturing technology I have seen over the years.

I’ll begin back in the ’70s. I was filling in for our secretary while she was on vacation. I was probably twelve or thirteen. It was summertime, and I went to work with my dad. I was to answer the phone and open the mail. I found other things to do, too, like cleaning my dad’s desk and some filing. I loved playing office. The one thing I remember was all the manual paperwork. I would fill out time cards for all the employees for the week. Maybe this was just something to keep me busy because why didn’t they fill out their own?

I became an official employee after high school. I started in shipping and receiving. I even drove the forklift, and I can tell you I was not certified. Everything was manual. I used a typewriter for packing slips. I used carbon paper to electro-etch part numbers on parts. One funny story is when I honed off a part number because it was smeared when marked. Well, I smeared it more than once and honed it two or three times until it looked OK. But the part was a gage, and I took it out of tolerance with my hone!

When I began working in the office, I was balancing the ledger. Yup, the big 11-by-17 ledger. All the entries were handwritten in that book. I had to ten-key the columns and balance the books.

Another big change is quoting. We had filing cabinets with every part number. When a new quote was requested, I prayed that part number was filed in the right place because that is where the history lived. If it wasn’t there, we would have to go back to the drawing board and re-quote it from scratch. Now, it is all stored in the cloud.

I remember the first computer we had. It was 1987. That was a big deal. We had a few geniuses on staff who just knew how it all worked. Jack Denstedt was one and was a partner in the business. He loved architecture, too, and if you come to the shop, you will see his handiwork. Jack loved to make the doorways into arches. It was a nice touch to the shop!

Probably one of the biggest changes in manufacturing technology at NTM is our grinding department. We still have most of our manual grinding machines, but now most of the work is done on our CNC tool and cutter grinders. For a small business, we do our best to keep up with technology, but it is going at such a rapid pace. We do what we can to keep up.

So much of manufacturing technology has changed in the past 50 years. Everything from administration, accounting, programming, sales, marketing, and job travelers are streamlined processes today. Fifty years of stories of change! I am so grateful to be part of the narrative. Here’s to 2026 and the next 50 years!