Crosby - an industry leader

By Crosby Group

Over the past century, the lifting industry has experienced many changes. Through that time many companies have arrived, flourished for a time, and then faded. The Crosby Group, Inc., Tulsa, OK, whose roots go back to the late 1800s, has emerged from many such changes, and now prevails as the leading worldwide manufacturer of end connections and accessories for the material handling industry, with a product offering focused on applications utilizing wire rope, chain, and synthetics.

Time Tested Brands
To take a brief look at just a few of the highlights in this long history, back in the late nineteenth century, Crosby's parent company, American Hoist & Derrick, St. Paul, MN, was beginning its trek to becoming the premier manufacturer of cranes in the world.
They began acquiring companies that would become today’s Crosby Group. The many acquisitions made were products related to cranes and lifting. Each acquisition was also of leading brands in their respective markets. The leading brands include:

Crosby® Laughlin – Wire rope clips, shackles and turnbuckles. Acquired in 1958, the Laughlin brand was widely known for quality, and is the foundation of today’s Crosby fittings.

McKissick® – Crane blocks, snatch blocks, construction blocks, sheaves and oil field products. McKissick Products , acquired in 1959, has developed into the producer of the widest range of blocks and sheaves in the world. McKissick is ISO 9001 and API Q1 certified, API-8A (#0023) and API-8C (#0021).

Lebus® – Shackles, hooks, turnbuckles, load binders and tail chains. Acquired in 1956. Lebus forges the load binders, shackles, hooks turnbuckles, links rings and other products throughout the Crosby line. Lebus is ISO 9001 certified.

National® – Cold Tuff® swage sleeves, swage buttons, swage sockets, swaging machines and dies. Acquired in 1969, National is the world leader in swage fittings used in the fabrication of wire rope slings and pendant lines for cranes. National is ISO 9001 certified.

Crosby IP® – Vertical and horizontal plate clamps. Acquired in 2005, Crosby IP is a world leader in the lifting clamps.

Each of these time tested brands are still the market leaders.

The “Value Added” Factor
There are six main areas that differentiate Crosby from its competitors. These areas are quality manufacturing, risk management and training, research and development, a complete broad based product line, customer service, and engineering.
Other companies may do one, or even two things close to what Crosby does, but nobody does all six as well. The synergy surrounding the six segments is very strong. For instance, Crosby's successful training program is part of risk management, but it could easily be part of our customer service.

Let's take a look at these categories one at a time.

Quality Manufacturing
In terms of quality manufacturing, all Crosby's facilities have been ISO-9001 certified since 1991, and selected plants also have other certifications. For most companies, achieving the ISO certification is a costly and time-consuming ordeal. For Crosby it was a relative breeze. Because of our early work with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, all of Crosby facilities had a strong documentation system. Going through the certification process just reinforced the process that had been in place for years.

All facilities were certified within six months. This emphasis upon quality is not a reflection of a trend, such as that of quality assurance, or a response to regulatory pressures, but rather has long resided at the center of the company's culture. This is a key reason for Crosby's longevity. Users of Crosby product have long recognized that our niche is quality.

Risk Management
What naturally follows from the quality of the products are risk management and training to make sure the products are used correctly. Crosby provides an extensive program on product warnings for various applications, and has developed different programs to meet national standards. Crosby was also the first in the industry to incorporate ANSI color schemes into our product warning system.

Crosby also has an extensive training program for risk management and training. Over the past ten years Crosby has trained well over 100,000 people worldwide. With the most experienced and recognized trainers in the industry, the quality of the training program is second only to the quality of the products. Crosby is looked upon to provide quality training in all aspects of the lift including how to plan the lift as well as selecting the right product for the job.

Crosby relates in this regard to almost every industry that requires lifting, including construction, manufacturing, automotive, utilities, oil, entertainment, commercial fishing, communications, transportation, lumber, and mining. The long range goal is to remain a single source for all accessories related to lifting with the highest level of quality control. Crosby has three full time trainers, as well as 25 plus outside sales representatives who are also certified as trainers. The company offers its training through industry associations, to distributors, and to end users. To support the training and risk management programs, Crosby has the most extensive literature in the industry, including catalogues, CD-ROM, all the latest e-tools and the Internet, as well as a variety of printed materials.

Research & Development
In terms of research and development, Crosby has always had a strong focus on providing new products and services to the industry. That innovative spirit has produced several industry first.
• 1880: Crosby was the first to produce forged wire rope clips. The Red U-Bolt Wire Rope Clip is Crosby's flagship product.
• 1925: McKissick patented the first wire rope guards on sheaves that could be opened for easy reeving.
• 1958: Load rating of the product came this year.
• 1973: Introduced the quenched and tempered heat treat process for fittings.
• 1976: First to forge a product identification codes (PICs) into each product to allow for traceability.
• 1978: Industry's first Roll Forged sheaves.
• 1991: Fatigue rating product.
• 1992: Crosby was the first to forge markings into hooks, shackles and various other rigging products so users could determine proper use (Quic-Check®).
• 1996: Crosby became one of the first companies in the U.S. to produce a crane block that can be reeved without removing the wedge socket from the rope.
• 2007: First to equip product with RFID chips designed to be used with industry first electronic inspection system developed by the company. 

But Crosby's innovations are not simply a matter of history. Long range goals are to look at any means necessary to maintain market leadership. This includes both acquisitions and new product development. An example of the former was Crosby's acquisition in 2005 of Inter Products, a world class manufacturer of lifting clamps. The IP brand of clamps are synonymous with quality and dependability.

Crosby knows that to continue to be the leader, they must continually raise the bar.

Just in this past year Crosby has introduced seven to eight new products, including a new socket termination to be used with stiffer, higher strength ropes, fittings to be used with grade 100 chain, as well as additions to the Sling Slaver® line for synthetic slings, plus several new hooks used in construction applications. Crosby recognizes that it is the manufacturer's responsibility to know the market place and develop the products that will enhance the offering.

Complete Product Line
New and innovative products may be the most interesting to talk about, but the breadth of the product line is also important. From the 1/8” Crosby wire rope clip to the 5000 metric tonne McKissick block, Crosby offers a complete product line of blocks sheaves and fittings. Crosby also has the ability to provide custom designed products for any lifting application.

Customer Service
Perhaps the most important category is that all Crosby employees are focused on is customer service. But within that there is also a full time, fully staffed, fully trained customer service department with over 250 years of industry experience. That experience, coupled with an extensive computer support system, makes for an industry leading team capable of handling any situation.

A full-blown web site has been designed for Crosby distributors, allowing them to download photos of all the products as well as take advantage of other computer tools. Crosby is currently developing e-commerce so the business partners (distributors) can buy on line.

A key aspect of customer service is prompt delivery. For this reason Crosby has warehouses situated in major cities around the world. Crosby also has a network of over 1600 distributors worldwide.

Engineering
The sixth category, the strong engineering staff, dovetails with others such as the quality manufacturing and the strong research and development orientation. Crosby’s engineering staff utilizes state-of-the-art computer systems to design and test new products. One of Crosby’s strengths is having the metallurgy background required to bring the best characteristics out of the steel. This includes a full service lab that allows complete testing of metallurgical properties.

A key to integrating all these six characteristics and making them work together is a strong management team. The average years of service in management are about 25 years. We believe the quality orientation attracts quality people. The vision is strong and the commitment to quality is unsurpassed.

So remember, when buying Crosby, you’re buying more than product, you’re buying Quality.