Snaptron

Snaptron is one of a class of companies where almost everyone will use one of their products every day without knowing it. Snaptron is the leading American manufacturer of tactile domes. A tactile dome is a small piece of metal underneath a button that both gives the button a distinct feel when pressed and registers the button press by completing an electrical circuit. So if you used a remote or pressed a button on your car’s radio or played a video game or used an appliance today, you used a tactile dome and chances are good at least one of those tactile domes was from Snaptron. Snaptron was founded in 1990 by Earl Tatman and is now led by CEO Brett Tatman at its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Windsor, CO.

Character

Snaptron’s character began with its founder, Earl Tatman, who founded the company in his garage and eventually passed it on to his son and current CEO Brett Tatman. Snaptron’s mission is to aggressively pursue innovative solutions to meet their customer’s needs. Snaptron prides itself on being the preeminent American manufacturer of tactile domes and takes seriously the responsibility that comes with that title. The company knows that the tactile domes it produces may be pushed thousands and thousands of times or may only be pushed once if at all. But in each case the dome needs to work exactly as intended whether it be in something as mundane as a remote or as exotic as in a Formula 1 race car.

Culture

A major part of the culture at Snaptron comes from simple retention and advancement of employees. Almost two-thirds of Snaptron employees have been with the company for at least five years, which is well above average for the manufacturing industry. Many of the managers at Snaptron have worked their way up through the company starting at entry level roles in areas like manufacturing and sales. Each day every department has a 15 minute stand-up meeting to gauge the status and feelings of each employee on their current projects. This prevents any employee from feeling excessively stressed to meet a deadline without the proper support from their department. Finally Snaptron values work-life balance including shutting down for a week between Christmas and New Year’s so that all employees can spend that time with their families.

Customers

Snaptron works closely with customers to develop custom solutions. This can be anything from designing the dome from scratch and helping the customer with specifications to taking a customer’s order and making the dome they know they already need. Snaptron has also invented and developed a number of technologies and devices for testing, handling, and placing their tactile domes, and those are made available for customers to purchase rather than keeping them as proprietary technology. As a result Snaptron can focus on the parts of the process of developing and manufacturing tactile domes that are the core of the company while also helping customers innovate in their final products.

Community

Snaptron invests heavily in STEM education through direct donations to engineering schools and sponsoring industry events. Snaptron also makes sure to participate in local events and programs in Northern Colorado that promote manufacturing and engineering careers and knowledge to K-12 students. Snaptron's openness with customers and peers to some of the processes also helps advance manufacturing knowledge.