Teaching High-Tech Skills and Building for the Future

Olson Custom Designs (OCD), based in Indianapolis, is a high-tech machine shop and training facility that manufactures quality products for the aerospace, medical, and commercial industries. OCD conducts CNC milling, CNC turning, fabrication and welding for all associated industries. The company supports a range of products from production to development and maintains the ability to adhere to the most stringent requirements.

Brothers Mitch and Brian Olson opened OCD in 2014 and turned their life-long love of car racing and experiences in the pit into a cutting-edge, high-tech, multi-faceted machine shop able to make precision parts for just about anything. That anything goes way beyond race cars, and includes revolutionary products used in the medical, defense, and aerospace industries. With the help of over $3.2 M in SBA-backed financing, and a close relationship with their Central Indiana SBDC & APEX Accelerator counselors, OCD has overhauled their space, expanded operations, and purchased state-of-the-art, high-tech equipment.

Working at OCD is fast paced, technical, and precise. It requires skills that aren’t usually taught in school. Because of this, co-owner Brian Olson says finding employees is hard, but their working on a solution by partnering with local schools and vocational programs and building their own apprenticeship-style training program that brings hands-on education in skilled trades to the next generation.

“College isn’t for everyone,” Olson said. “We were challenged that we couldn’t find employees with the kind of skills we needed to run machines making products for our clients, so we’re building our own training program. It’s a win-win - we teach the skills we need, and students gain skills that they need to secure a bright and sustainably employable future.”

For more information on SBA programs, loans, and manufacturing initiatives, visit www.sba.gov/in.