Haas Automation Inc celebrates 25 years

In 1983, Gene Haas founded Haas Automation, Inc, to manufacture the industry's first fully automatic programmable collet indexer. Designed to increase production in his own machine shop, the Haas 5C indexer was an instant success, and over the next four years, the product line expanded to include a wide selection of fully programmable rotary tables, indexers and machine tool accessories. In 1988, Haas Automation achieved another industry milestone by introducing the first American-built vertical machining centre (VMC) to sell for less than $50,000 – a price unheard of at the time. The Haas VF-1 (legend has it that this means very first one) sold for a published price of $49,900, and quickly became the industry benchmark for affordable CNC technology. Today, 25 years later, Haas Automation is the world's leading manufacturer of CNC machine tools – building, selling and shipping more machines per month than any other single builder in the Western World. All Haas products are manufactured in the company's 1-million-square-foot facility in Southern California, and distributed through a worldwide network of more than 120 Haas Factory Outlets. Each HFO has complete showroom facilities, factory-trained service personnel, extensive spare-parts inventories and fully stocked service vehicles to provide the industry's best service and support. From the start, Haas Automation has provided reliable, affordable machine tool solutions – at published prices – to job shops and contract manufacturers around the world, relying on volume sales rather than per-unit profit to build the company. Extensive use of lean manufacturing methods and just-in-time production practices allows the Haas Automation to produce high-precision CNC products while maintaining exacting quality and value-based pricing. In 2008, the company will build more than 14,000 machines, with around 60 per cent of them going to international markets. Pictured: The front of Haas Automaion's California HQ and factory