Lee Marzilli
Complementary Powers Create a Strong Business
Good partners in life and business balance each other like yin and yang, creating a sum that is stronger than its parts.
“Where he's weaker, I'm stronger, and where I'm weaker, he's stronger,” says Lee Marzilli, CEO of Marzilli Machine and the wife of Jamie Marzilli, the company's president. Based in Seekonk, Massachusetts, an hour south of Boston in the South Coast region, Marzilli Machine specializes in milling and turning in volume, from prototype parts to production runs. The company serves many industries but focuses on defense, firearms, aerospace, and medical applications.
Fifteen years ago, Lee Marzilli was a pharmacy chain store manager working on her MBA at the University of Rhode Island when she and Jamie Marzilli connected (see their story). Knowing he was miserable at his job, she dared him to start a business, which he did in 2011 (see Jamie's story). After Marzilli Machine showed success, she joined full-time in 2013 and took over the books, managing payroll, human resources, quoting, and other financial management duties. Today, Marzilli Machine is a woman-owned business (the split is 51-49).
“It evolved naturally into where I handle the front end, and he handles more of the technical and production side,” says Lee Marzilli. “We didn't specify rules. He's really good at sales, and I'm more reserved. We mesh instead of competing on the same stuff.”
Planning Ahead
Lee Marzilli's MBA concentration was in finance. Not only did she learn the bookkeeping aspects of running a business, but she also learned how to improve a business, such as conducting a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).
“If you're not familiar with a SWOT analysis, you can fall flat,” she says. “Getting an MBA taught me the importance of back-end operations that you might not think about on a day-to-day basis. Instead of being a firefighter, you're proactive.”
She gives several examples of being proactive:
- Good shop organization and attention to detail. “Are all parts and supplies tagged? Are all storage areas clean? Can you find what you're looking for in five seconds or less? Are parts deburred?”
- People management. “I'll ask people how their day is and if there's anything I can do to help make their manufacturing job easier and better.”
- Finding and training good employees. “We focus on recruiting students from area high schools and technical schools. To train people who don't have a background, we use the Titans of CNC Academy; plus, Jamie is a certified educator.”
- Using ProShop ERP. An all-in-one solution for streamlining manufacturing processes, ProShop offers paperless workflows, integrated quality tools, and real-time data to help users manage every aspect of the front office and shop floor.
Your Friends in Government
Lee Marzilli's top piece of advice for any startup company is to use the Small Business Administration (SBA) as a resource for business planning.
“The Massachusetts SBA helped us learn how to be proactive with cash flow and plan things out ahead of time. They also helped us learn how to do business planning, forecasting, and all the things that banks want you to have a firm grasp on,” she says.
In addition to invaluable connections to services and like-minded businesses, the SBA can also help guide businesses to “hidden” benefits. For example, she had never heard of HUBZone, an SBA program that directs at least 3% of federal contract funds to historically underutilized business zones (see this interactive HUBZone map). The SBA can also help shop owners determine whether they qualify for other programs, such as being a woman- or veteran-owned business.
Shop Management
With Lee Marzilli's penchant for organization and managing profitability, she appreciates the benefits of the ProShop ERP system.
“With ProShop, you spend time on the front end setting up the system, then it does a great job of linking all the items for a job together, including tooling, bill of materials, certifications, inspection data, and more,” she says.
As an example, she cites proactive job planning. Before ProShop, the machinists could start setting up a job and find that they didn't have the right tool or material size, and that could cause delays. Now the system ensures jobs don't get sent to the machinist without everything in place.
“You're more likely to have on-time delivery because all the information is at your fingertips,” she explains. “Also, aerospace companies want fast, transparent communication about the progress of their components.”
She notes that the impetus for an ERP system occurred when Marzilli Machine shifted into more government work for Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers. The requirements for improved documentation and records management come from those contractors and flow down to job shops.
People Skills
The Marzillis believe in hiring for character and training for skill. They have a younger crew, so providing health insurance is significantly cheaper. However, that also means managing problems typical of younger people.
“You have to teach them about life,” Lee Marzilli says. “That covers everything from health insurance and retirement planning to finding a doctor to reminding them to eat breakfast when they look like they're dragging.”
Hiring for character also gives her the opportunity to bring people who might not have looked to manufacturing for a career. For example, she had known Taryn Adams for 20 years. Tara had worked in customer service in the medical and insurance industries. Knowing her work ethic, Lee Marzilli asked if she would like to work in the shipping department.
“It's a whole different aspect to what I'd done previously in my work life, and I appreciated the opportunity. It's kind of amazing to see what the machines and people here can create,” says Tara.
Kimberly White, the shipping manager at Marzilli Machine, had worked for a manufacturing company previously but didn't feel like she had any say in its operations.
“They wouldn't listen to me,” White says. “I had a lot of great ideas about how to grow the company and make things faster and better, but they didn't want to hear it. Lee and Jamie take everyone's thoughts into consideration and have implemented a few of my ideas. It's the best place I've worked in manufacturing.”
A few of those ideas include having carte blanche to set up the shipping area as she thought best when Marzilli Machine moved into a new 13,000-square-foot building in 2024.
“What drives Jamie and me is building something great. People want to come to work here, and they are excited to show up every day,” says Lee Marzilli. “Building is fun, and it's a legacy we can leave to our children if it's something that they're interested in.”
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