This article is sponsored by Hope Industrial Systems. In this Voices interview, Control Engineering spoke with Mike McGraw, president of Hope Industrial Systems, to discuss the company’s product strategy for factory-floor displays, and the philosophy driving its global success.
Control Engineering: Congratulations on celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary. Can you tell us about Hope Industrial, how it got started, and how it’s arrived at a quarter century in business? Have you had the same owners since the beginning?
Mike McGraw: That’s right. I actually look at us as a pretty classic American success story, as far as businesses go. Our founders came from one of the world leaders in the automation industry, and they started Hope Industrial in a basement outside of Atlanta almost exactly 25 years ago. They didn’t take outside investments or go into debt, they simply developed, designed and sold products.
It’s interesting because we just manufacture displays. We are unique in that we make computer monitors and touch screens for factory floors only. That’s all we do, and we’ve become experts in that area. We sell directly to end users, systems integrators and OEMs, with a small portion through distribution. But anytime you’re buying from us, you’re buying direct.
All our manufacturing is still in the USA, just outside of Atlanta. We are 100% owned internally; we’re not for sale. We believe that our greatest strength is our people, and every one of them is focused on creating a positive customer experience every time.
What are some of the most popular things you produce, and how are they used in the field?
Consider a restaurant that has every different type of food. Mexican, Italian, American and all kinds of different things. You’ll quickly realize they’re spread too thin — versus a restaurant that has a smaller menu. Usually, when I go to a restaurant like that, I say, “hey, this is probably a good place because they’re focused on these specific things.”
I liken us to the restaurant with the small menu, so really, I can sum up our products quickly. We make displays, with or without touchscreen, in sizes ranging from 12-inch to 23.8-inch widescreen. Those are available as panel mount monitors, which can be installed in control panels on the factory floor, or in our Universal Mount line of fully enclosed monitors that can mount on a pedestal, wall, post or column. We have both resistive and projected capacitive (PCAP) options available. We also make a rack mount monitor line for use in clean, dry environments. We also offer peripheral products that are used along with the monitors, such as keyboards, KVM extenders and different mounting for workstations. We make PC enclosures that let you put your PC inside and attach it to our monitor. We’ve got longer cabling options, too, so you can keep your PC in a clean, dry environment while the touchscreen operates out on the factory floor.
Can you discuss how you’re a price leader in the industry?
First of all, there are a lot of great suppliers in America, Europe, and all over the world. But for us, we are focused really on industrial monitors and touchscreens only. We like to say that we sell a lot of a few things, like I talked about with the menu example earlier.
We have a streamlined direct selling model, so there’s no one between us and our customers. When you buy from us, you’re buying directly from the manufacturer. Our prices are based solely on our costs. Our goal is to drive pricing in our market. We aren’t looking around to see what the competition is charging or what other suppliers are charging. We’re just constantly trying to drive our costs down, and every time we do, we’re able to lower our price as well.
Earlier, you mentioned that you’re manufacturing in Atlanta, but your products are installed all over the world. Tell us about that.
For 25 years, every monitor we’ve made has been built here in Atlanta.
It’s like a family here, really. You’d be surprised if you came to see us. We are in an office complex as opposed to a big, dark warehouse, so there’s a lot of sunlight coming in. We don’t manufacture in an assembly line environment. All our employees work in their own cell, making a full product from start to finish. When it ships out, they know, “Hey, this is something I made, it’s going to this specific customer, and here’s what it’s going to be used for.” We’re different in that way.
We also pay well. All our employees have full benefits, and our average tenure is about eight years. We’ve got a lot of people who have been here, fully invested, for a really long time.
Regarding the rest of the world, we actually have monitors on all seven continents. We’ve shipped monitors well into the hundreds of thousands over the last 25 years. Years ago, we developed a warehouse in the U.K. and one in Amsterdam, where our products are all stocked. If you contact us from Europe, we ship directly from those warehouses. Our shipping to Europe is really fast, usually one to three business days. We’ve also got websites in several different European languages, and we’ve done really well in that area over the years.
Can you talk about other aspects of your business that set Hope Industrial apart?
One thing we realize is our customers need product quickly. You can do a lot of things right, but sometimes it comes down to, “I’m down a monitor, and I need it quick.”
Given that, we decided a long time ago to invest heavily in inventory so that we can have stuff in stock and ready to ship. Most of the time, that results in one- to two-day shipment lead times. For most models, we ship it the same day it’s ordered.
The other thing customers really care about is reliability. They don’t want to put a monitor in service, be doing their manufacturing on the factory floor, and then have it fail. So, we’ve worked a lot over the years to increase the reliability of our products. In fact, all our products are backed by a five-year warranty, which is the longest warranty in the industry.
We do different things — like publish detailed product reliability reports for all our products on our website. We’ve got field-proven MTBFs of well over 250,000 hours. And if you look at where our monitors are installed, they’re in some of the harshest factory environments anywhere in the world, and they’re doing really well.
One unique aspect is that all our certifications are third-party certified by UL. So, for example, when we say something is NEMA 4X, that means we’ve contracted with UL, and they’ve certified it as NEMA 4X. Our customers really like that.
Another area where we stand out is repairs. We can sing and dance all we want, but if a product breaks, the customer needs it back quickly. Most of the time, when we get a monitor in for repair, we turn it around within 24 hours. Many times, we can complete the repair the same day.
When that happens, we don’t look at it as, okay, your product is down, now we can charge you a lot of money to fix it. Our repair costs are really low. We hear that from customers all the time. We just repair it, get it back to you, and we don’t charge you an arm and a leg to fix it.
Is there anything you can say about who’s using your products?
Our people are the most important thing, and that’s the secret to our success. It’s the people working here who are serving our customers. The second secret is that everyone, from production to marketing, sales, accounting and leadership, is focused on creating a positive customer experience every time.
Our list of customers is awesome. One neat thing is that over 90% of our business is from repeat customers. To me, that just means the customers like us. When they come to us, they like the product, they like who they’re dealing with, and they stick with us.
They really like that all of our service is with a real person. If you call, you get a real person. If you use the chat, it’s a person here in Atlanta chatting back with you. Emails, all of that, it’s just personalized customer service.
We’re also very focused on the factory floor. All our design and thinking is centered around the factory floor environment. Around here it’s fun to say, “this monitor is in an amusement park, this one’s on a battleship, or this one’s on a ship in Antarctica.” We find ourselves in all kinds of really neat industries.
And as far as industries go, it’s pretty much everything — aerospace, automotive, consumer goods, electronics, energy. We find ourselves a lot in food and beverage industries just because our monitors can handle constant contact with water, heat and debris. We’re also in medical, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, metals, transportation. Really, just every kind of industry you can think of.
How can people reach Hope Industrial if they’re interested in your products and services?
We look at ourselves as a relational company, not a transactional company. You can visit our website, hopeindustrial.com, or if you’re in Europe, hopeindustrial.eu. We also have separate websites for Germany, Italy, France and Spain.
You can call us and speak with a real person. If you chat in, you’ll get a real person. There’s email, or a contact form. We also have a Configurator online option where you can build out a full product line and get a quote.
The point is, if you ever need us, we’re here.
For over 25 years, Hope Industrial Systems has produced high‑quality industrial monitors and touch screens in Atlanta, GA, delivering dependable performance worldwide with low prices, fast shipping and an industry-leading 5‑Year Warranty plus 30‑Day Satisfaction Guarantee.
Learn more about our rugged solutions at hopeindustrial.com.
