LINCOLN — Northeast Michigan has a long and deep history with the manufacturing industry, and, in the eyes of many, that industry is on the rise.

One manufacturer that exemplifies that idea of growth is Northern Precision in Lincoln, which in 2023 began efforts to expand its building.

Northern Precision is a family-owned business that serves the niche role of manufacturing tools for the cold heading and cold forming industry, meaning they create the tools other companies use to create their products.

“We make the tooling that our customers put in their machines, and then they make parts using our tooling,” Northern Precision Plant Manager David Dubuque said. “For example, you know how the shells of spark plugs are made of metal? We make the tooling that our customers use to form those. Our tooling goes into stuff that goes in mining, drilling, appliances, and automotive. Our tooling has ended up with Ford, Caterpillar, and Treichel.”

In addition to the diversity of the products, since Northern Precision has only 25 employees, each employee must complete a broader range of tasks to fill orders, which requires a great deal of skill and training, according to Dubuque.

“We’re called the job shop,” said Dubuque. “Every day, you’re switching around to a lot of different types of operations. So it’s definitely not production jobs. People work here to be very skilled in machining. So there’s a lot of training to take care of for years and years to get good at each position.”

Northern Precision has seen a great deal of success and in 2023 reached a milestone five years in the making with the beginning of an expansion of the plant. The renovations will add 4,000 square feet to the building, which Dubuque intends to fill with additional machinery as well as some new employees.

The year “2023 has been a very good year for us,” said Dubuque. “But our biggest milestone is that we’re adding to our building right now. We’re adding 4,000 square feet to our building, and that’s gonna make a big difference for us in 2024, because it will allow us to buy new equipment and hire new employees.”

According to Dubuque, Northern Precision has been a staple of the Lincoln community for over 40 years, acting as a steady and reliable source of employment for the community.

Dubuque hopes that, with the pending renovations, Northern Precision will continue that role in the future.

“We’ve been here in Lincoln for over 40 years,” said Dubuque. “So we’ve been a steady employer. We’ve always been busy, even during the (coronavirus pandemic) lockdown or (the Great Recession in) 2008, we’re good constants, here.”