Think About the Flow

Not everything in Texas begins large. Lewis Sign Builders Inc.’s current website promises it can deliver “on-time and on-budget by utilizing in-house manufacturing, machinery and lift equipment.” We provide custom electrical signage, sign installation, project management, digital printing and sign maintenance.
Bill and Ann Lewis started the business in June 1977 in the family garage. They slowly built on their progressive successes, and, in 1978, they moved into a 1,000-sq.-ft. facility, where they manufactured and installed signs, with four employees. In 1981, the company moved into a 2,500-sq.-ft. facility, which was later expanded to 5,000 sq. ft. We now operate out of a 20,160-sq.-ft. facility in Buda, TX.
In 2007, five years after Bill passed away, I realized the company had outgrown the existing space. We’d been “making do” for too long.
I had grown up in the sign business, working summers in high school and daily through college. After I graduated from Texas State University in 1995, with a degree in business management, I became VP of the sign company, and my real education began. For the last 15 years, I’ve been running the daily operations, and I still maintain the same principles my father upheld: honesty, integrity and quality.
When a realtor showed me the new site in Buda (roughly 17 miles from Austin), I instantly liked its location off a major interstate highway; it had street appeal with a huge glass front. The new location offered professional presence. The easy highway access also pleased freight companies and sign suppliers.
The company set aside funds to cover the build-out and the down time associated with the move. Also, we secured an SBA loan for the building. The purchase of the new building began in February ’09, and the company began moving in June ’09. It wasn’t until August that we felt “moved in.”
Our old location was built on a lot that was less than one acre. Every morning was hectic, with managing the logistics of getting four installation crews loaded and off to the jobsites with a very small and very tight parking lot. Managing 20 employees arriving at work simultaneously was wild as well.
The small shop stifled production abilities. A large project would consume all the shop area. We expanded the graphics department at the old shop with the purchase of a digital printer, which was accommodated by the purchase a 16 x 40-ft. (640-sq.-ft.) modular building, which now serves as a breakroom.
Between down time and build-out, and a few layout tweaks, the expansion of the new building cost roughly $100,000 (excluding purchase dollars). We also purchased a CLN channel-letter machine, which takes up 400 sq. ft. of shop space, and a 10-ft. hydraulic sheetmetal shear, which consumes 100 sq. ft.
We haven’t added new services, but we’ve increased the volume of existing services, and we complete more work daily in the extra space. Also, room for inventory increased by roughly 5,000 sq. ft.
We’ve added 15 employees since the move (we employ 35 in total), primarily in the channel-letter and custom sign-cabinet departments and manufacturing. Now we can line up the flow in the new shop; in the old shop we were making do in one area and could only work on one project at a time.

   John L. Lewis is president of lewis Sign Builders (Buda, TX).