Adapting to the Needs of Machine Tool Users Since 1951

Maintenance Service Corp. (MSC) was founded in 1951 to fulfill the machine tool service and machine tool maintenance needs of local Milwaukee, Wisconsin manufacturers. With a dedication to adapting to customers' needs and a reputation for quality workmanship, this family-owned company grew from a garage sized machine tool repair shop into the nation's largest independent machine tool rebuilder. Now serving customers around the world, MSC is the North American leader in machine tool remanufacture, machine tool retrofit, machine tool service and machine tool repair.

In 1951, Richard V. Marsek founded MSC to provide on-site machine tool maintenance and machine tool repair to Milwaukee area industries. The company quickly progressed from a rented garage with two mechanics and a truck into a company owned building with a staff of twenty employees. The scope of work also expanded from emergency machine tool repairs and machine tool maintenance into more precision scraping of ways and adjusting of machine tool alignment. Eventually, the customers' desire for accuracy required the machine tool's removal from the factory to perform a complete machine tool reconditioning.

After several expansions, MSC arrived at its current Milwaukee location in 1963. This facility was built specifically for machine tool rebuilding. An in-house machine shop and engineering department were added, as well as heavier overhead crane capacity. During the 1950s and 1960s, MSC's machine tool experience encompassed presses, drilling machines, engine lathes, turret lathes, knee mills, screw machines, surface grinders and boring bars.

Throughout the 1970s, MSC set out to bring its machine tool rebuilding experience and machine tool repair knowledge closer to the machine tool end users by having multiple locations. In 1973, MSC purchased Chicago Machinery Rebuilders and relocated them to a facility in Wood Dale, Illinois. This division focused on
rebuilding smaller machine tools, such as radial drills, turret lathes, and knee mills, for the Midwest area. In 1974, Dixie Machine Rebuilding was established in Nashville, Tennesse as a duplicate of the Milwaukee operation to provide full service machine tool rebuilding and machine tool retrofits to the Southern market. Land was purchased in California in anticipation of building a facility to extend local machine tool service to customers on the West Coast.

By 1981, these divisions, totaling 134 employees, had established MSC as the nation's largest independent machine tool rebuilder. The Milwaukee facility had contracted to rebuild machine tools for OEMs such as G&L and K&T. MSC became recognized by electronic control manufacturers for its expertise in retrofitting older machine tools with their new technology. But by the end of the decade, foreign manufacturers were providing quality new machine tools that were not only less expensive as compared with U.S. machine tools, they were also below the cost of a rebuilt machine tool.

During the 1990s the economics of machine tool rebuilding dramatically changed. Advancements in technology and global competition created an environment where machine tool users expected increases in productivity and reliability without substantial increases in price. Most small and medium sized machine tools were either obsolete or priced out of the rebuild market. While many customers' machines remained potential CNC retrofit candidates, only large or special design machine tools were financially sound investments for a complete machine tool remanufacture.

MSC's president and second generation of family leadership, Richard J. Marsek, adapted MSC to this difficult market with an initiative to focus on the service needs of machine tool users. This included emergency repairs for machine tool crashes, creating preventative maintenance programs, providing laser calibration, having fast turnaround delivery of machine tool realignments and on-site retrofit systems integration. He also created a computer database of MSC's extensive knowledge and experience to provide realistic quotations to customers evaluating whether to repair, remanufacture or purchase a new machine tool. MSC also developed relationships with foreign and domestic machine tool builders to supply the service personnel and maintain parts inventory for their United States customers.

With the machine tool industry entering the 21st century, a third generation family member is helping to extend MSC's machine tool knowledge to machine tool users throughout Canada and Mexico. Max R. Marsek, son of the president and grandson of the founder, has sought to expand MSC's global outlook and international presence. MSC has been providing its machine tool services to divisions of U.S. customers in northern Mexico for 30 years, but now plans to forge alliances with local strategic partners to provide the best possible service to all machine tool users within the Mexican market. MSC has also increased its sales and marketing efforts in Canada to expand its presence north of the border as well. Maintenance Service Corp. maintains its goal to be the best, most complete, independent aftermarket machine tool services organization in North America.