25 years of industrial computer monitor innovation

Every control system on the factory floor needs reliable monitors, touchscreens and related products to keep their operation running efficiently. For the last 25 years, Hope Industrial Systems (HIS), based in Atlanta, Ga., has been at the forefront of manufacturing monitors and supplying them quickly to customers all over the world. How did the company succeed, so it can celebrate its 25th anniversary? Mike McGraw, president of Hope Industrial Systems, talked with Control's editor-in-chief, Len Vermillion, to explain what sets the company and its products apart from the field.

Q: Tell us about Hope Industrial and how it arrived at a quarter century in business?

A: Our founders came from one of the world leaders in automation, and they started HIS in a basement outside Atlanta. They didn't rely on outside investments or take on any debt. They just came up with products, designed and manufactured them, and sold them.

We’re unique because we make touchscreens and computer monitors for factory floors only. We sell directly to end users, systems integrators and OEMs. Anytime you buy our products you're buying from us directly, and all our manufacturing is done just outside of Atlanta.

We believe our greatest strength is our people. All of us focus on creating a positive customer experience every time.

Q: What are your most popular products, and how are they used in the field?

A: We make displays with or without touchscreens, in sizes from 12 inches to 23.8 inches. They're available in panel-mount versions, as well as what we call our Universal Mount monitors, which are fully enclosed monitors that can be mounted on pedestals, walls, posts or columns, anywhere on the factory floor. We also make rack-mount monitors. We have both resistive and projected capacitive (PCap) touchscreen options. We also have accessories that go along with the monitors, such as keyboards, extended cabling options, PC enclosures, and different mounting options for workstations.

Q: A business really doesn't get this far without setting itself apart from the field. For starters, you're a price leader in the industry, right?

A: We are. There are a lot of great suppliers all over the world, and we all go about things differently. HIS is somewhat unique in that we’re laser focused on industrial monitors and touchscreens only. We like to say that “we sell a lot of a few things.” We also have a streamlined, direct-selling model, so there's no one between us and our customers.

We base our pricing solely on our costs. Our goal is to drive pricing in our market. We aren't looking around to see what other folks are charging for their products.

We're constantly trying to drive our costs down so we're able to lower our prices as well. Those are a few things that allow us to be a price leader.

Q: You're manufacturing in Atlanta, but your products are installed all over the world. Can you talk about that supply?

A: For 25 years, every monitor we've made has been made in Atlanta. It's a family here. We're in an office complex with lots of windows, as opposed to a big, dark warehouse. We don't have assembly lines. All our employees work at their own table, where they make full products on their own from start to finish. When it ships out, they know it's something they personally made, and a lot of times they know the specific customer that will use it and how it will be used. We're different in that way.

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We have monitors on all seven continents. We've shipped hundreds of thousands of monitors over the last 25 years. We have product stocked in the U.K. and in the EU. If you contact us from Europe, we ship directly from those warehouses—our shipping to Europe is fast.

Q: What are some other aspects about your business that set you apart?

A: One thing we’ve realized is our customers need product quickly. You can do a lot of things right, but a lot of times it's just that they need a quality monitor fast. We decided to make sure to have products in stock and ready to ship. Most of the time, that results in one-to-two-day shipment lead time. A lot of the time we'll ship the same day.

The other thing that customers really care about is reliability. They don't want to put a monitor in service and then have it fail on them. We've worked over the years to increase the reliability of our products. And in fact, all our products are backed by a five-year warranty, which is the longest warranty in the industry. We also publish detailed product reliability reports on all our products.

Q: What is the importance of the customer experience?

A: Everyone here is focused on creating a positive customer experience every time. Every production person, everyone in marketing or sales, even everyone on the accounting and executive team is thinking about creating a positive customer experience every time.

More than 90% of our business is from repeat customers. To me, that means customers like us. When they come to us, they like the product, they like who they're dealing with, and they stick with us.