Going from selling produce to fast food chains to selling cutting tools is not your typical industrial career path, but as at Horn USA (IMTS booth #431722) chief marketing and sales officer Mike Csizmar notes, “shredded lettuce and diced onions don’t sell themselves.” Nobody in Csizmar’s family was in manufacturing, but he had a friend that resharpened end mills. In 1984, he an opportunity to interview with an insert fabricator, got the job, and succeeded as a salesman in his native New York. Because of his sales savvy, the company moved him to Michigan, which led him to open and run his own company, a combination of cutting tool distributor and manufacturer of fixtures. HORN was one of the product lines he represented. Impressed with his work, HORN made Csizmar an employment offer, and 21 years later, he leads company sales in America from its facility in Franklin, Tenn.Changing PerceptionsFrom Paul Horn’s invention of an indexable piston ring groover in 1969, the company has grown to a product range of more than 25,000 standard tools and 150,000 special solutions. “We are really an engineering company of engineered specials and customs. Our key markets are medical, automotive, agriculture, and aerospace, but we touch every major segment,” says Csizmar.HORN was founded in Germany in 1969 and expanded into the United States. in the 1990s. Its core competences are based on four pillars based: in-house control of research and development department, coating technology, carbide production, and manufacturing technologies. “Most people think we just make tools for small hole boring and milling because that’s how we started out, but today we are a full line cutting tool supplier,” says Csizmar. “We have products for turning, milling, ultra-hard cutting materials, gear cutting, broaching, drilling, reaming, thread whirling – pretty much everything except tapping. There are many applications where we can combine our engineering expertise with customer processes and ideas.”As an example, he cites ZykloMed, a joint project involving companies that include HORN and INDEX (booth #339119) and funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research. As chronicled in a Production Machining article, the project’s goal was to develop new manufacturing processes for the economical machining of medical implants with multifunctional and non-round bionic designs. The three manufacturing processes developed were eccentric turning, polygon turning, and turn-whirl milling.“High speed whirling is a unique process that you can only get on an INDEX-Traub machine,” says Csizmar. “We developed the tools to meet these crazy angles, and it’s a really fast way to make bone screws.”Culture and GrowthCsizmar has been with the company for more than two decades, “Culture is everything here,” says Csizmar. “Lothar Horn, the son of founder Paul Horn, and I knew each other. Part of why I ended up in this position was to help continue the culture, and it’s about family. It’s about treating people with respect. There’s proof of it every day, and that helps us retain employees. We let the community use our extra space for free. We’re on a big education push right now, working with local tech colleges and high schools, and we joined up with TITANS of CNC.”HORN’s Franklin facility, which opened in 2001, is the largest subsidiary outside of the company’s Germany headquarters. While many of its products are manufactured in Germany, manufacturing is growing in Tennessee. “We have engineering services and manufacture the tools used locally, which is why we have a fleet of grinding machines that’s growing, and we recently installed a coatings room,” says Csizmar. “We also have marketing, customer service, and of course a sophisticated and highly automated distribution service. The HORN philosophy is to be fast, be global, and deliver locally.” Local delivery – serving U.S. customers from Tennessee – puts HORN in a good place from which to grow.“The world according to Mike Csizmar is opportunity,” he says. “As companies are bringing manufacturing back to the States, they need to get tools quickly, and they need tools for newer, more advanced equipment. Everybody wants smaller batches, wants them quicker, and everything is more specialized. With the way we can design tools and improve processes, we’re in a fortunate position to help companies streamline their operations and improve their economics.” Visit Horn USA at IMTS 2024, Sept 9-14 in booth #431722. Register now at IMTS.com/register.)
“Opportunity is everywhere,” encapsulates Csizmar’s optimistic perspective on the industry. By seamlessly merging Horn’s engineering expertise with customer processes and ideas, Mike sees a path to unlocking significant growth and success.