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Nye Manufacturing Ltd. creates custom attachments for construction equipment at a level of quality and uniqueness that can’t be matched, President Mark Nye insists. The Mississauga, Ontario, Canada-based company can do this because it designs its products with these standards in mind, without financial constraints, Nye says.

“We are positioned as a slightly better, high-quality, heavy-duty manufacturer with slightly higher prices, as opposed to the cookie-cutter, whack-out-as-many-as-possible guys,” Nye says.
“When we design a product, we design first with consideration to how it performs and how it wears.

“We are more of an innovator and a low-volume producer; we are not a mass-producer,” Nye continues. “This allows us more flexibility in the industry. We design our products to be the best they can be, with little regard to cost. Our philosophy is ‘quality first, price second.’”

Innovation, Inside and Out
The company recently developed a new stump harvester, the XSH5, which it calls the “warrior” of stump harvesters. The machine has a unique, single-point tooth on the cutting side of its jaws that allows wood to be split horizontally and vertically. All teeth on the harvester are replaceable, and the company says it’s the “most versatile and aggressive harvester ever built.”

Nye says his company continues to improve its main product lines, which include excavator buckets, grapples and concrete pulverizers, through what he says is a “vigorous evolutionary process.”

“Because we don’t mass-produce, we build each product to order, this has allowed us to have a very short cycle time on innovations and improvements,” Nye explains. “I’m in the shop every day with a notepad, in the field taking customer feedback and rolling these improvements into our products.”

The company has also updated its line of tilt buckets with twin double-acting cylinders, as opposed to single-acting cylinders, giving them twice as much holding and turning torque. This reduces stress on the cylinder and cylinder pins. The buckets also now feature integrated loadholding and relieving valves that completely manage the tilt bucket hydraulics, regardless of machine settings. Nye says this feature is “kind of cool. With this recent improvement, Nye tilt buckets are now the best in the world.”

Other Nye products include:

• Booms and sticks
• Extensions
• Grapples
• Pulverizers
• Shears
• Rakes
• Rippers

Nye says the company can afford to be “very generous” with its warranty. “If a customer has a difficulty with a bucket or a concern about any of our products, we simply replace them,” Nye says. “If there’s any doubt about it being our fault, it’ll be corrected or replaced right away.” Nye says the company’s “no-nonsense” warranty is good for one year, or 1,500 hours, of the product’s use.

Because the U.S. dollar is depreciating, Nye says it’s becoming more difficult to sell to customers in the United States. The company copes by reducing its margins and making its manufacturing process more efficient.

Nye Manufacturing recently implemented advanced shop floor management/ERP software, which gives the company better control over its resources. “We now have computer terminals right on the shop floor for electronic drawing distribution,” Nye says.

“We wanted to improve our control over drawings and over bills of materials, allowing us to adjust our prices to be more competitive.”

Nye Manufacturing’s 15,000-square-foot plant employs 40 workers. The lean facility is equipped with skilled staff and a variety of machinery, including:

• Rolls
• Presses
• Plate burning machines
• Iron workers
• Semi-automatic welding machines
• Drills
• Mills
• CNC saws, mills and lathes

 “We keep a full inventory of quenched and tempered structural, alloy and abrasion-resistant steels, as well as cutting edges and a range of popular ground-engaging tools,” the company says.

Nye’s father, Jack Nye, founded the company in 1952. This experience gives the company – which has kept many of its employees for decades – the expertise to repair and modify equipment from other companies.

“There aren’t a lot of shops around that have our skill and expertise [regarding] these alterations,” Nye says. “We’ve had arms sent to us for repairs and modifications from as far as Washington state, Florida and Boston because these people know us and they trust us.”

Nye points out that these repairs add a little excitement to the company’s work environment. “Because we’re not a mass producer, our shop can be interesting at times,” Nye says. “Because we’re doing repairs and alterations, there are often new sights to be seen in the shop. So that’s interesting and stimulating to our employees, and it keeps them challenged.”