Every successful company begins with a great story. Green Oxen has no shortage of adventures, but before we get into those, let’s start at the beginning. We get asked questions like these all the time: “What does Green Oxen mean”? “Why did you start this company?” “What makes you different?” You probably find yourself asking them too. So, let’s get into it.
How Green Oxen Got Started.
Green Oxen was started by two brothers, Alex and Jamie Schlinkmann, who own and operate Automatic Manufacturing Systems. For the last 30 years, they have been designing machinery that some of the top companies in the world use today. These machines are used to make everything from aircraft structures to power-generation equipment, wind turbines and everything in-between. These same machines produce components for Green Oxen’s products. Needless to say, they are very detail-oriented engineers.
When the brothers were building their homes in South Florida, they were searching for modern, sustainable, and robust items that were unique, innovative, and impactful. They were met with a major gap in products for modern homes. They found a decent selection of railings, but if you wanted a modern look, that usually fell into “custom”. Custom-made metal architectural elements were normally architect-designed and they found them to be expensive and hard-to-source. So the two sat down and set out to invent their own elements by embracing their entrepreneurial spirit once again.
It seemed that people just couldn’t get enough of the duo’s designs and quickly became inundated with requests for these items in both residential and commercial properties. Now all they had to do was come up with a name and build the foundation of the business. Sounds easy, right?
How Did You Come Up With The Name Green Oxen?
Paying homage to their background and upbringing, the brothers were reminiscent of a High School German class when they were asked to come up with an idea for a business and to name it. The boys went home and spoke to their dad about it and came up with the name Green Oxen for this fantasy business they would one day create together. Since that day, and even more so, since their father passed, they were determined to use that name somehow and honor their father’s memory. The opportunity finally came to fruition with this new passion project and Green Oxen was born.
What Top 3 Things Did They Learn Through The Process And Do Better?
- Most metal architectural products are fabricated using rough, dirty fabrication equipment and then finished by manual processing to the desired result.
- Quality control is done by inspection and rework and a lot of individual judgment is utilized.
- Manufacturing these components in high volume to tight tolerances is key to providing modern highly aesthetic products worthy of their place in high-value spaces.
