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The Daily Duff 2/27/16

jduffent

Sponsor/Vendor
Sr. Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2003
Messages
508
Suzy took over the family business of James Duff Inc. a little over 8 years ago. A lot of you know that story and know the business was moved from Sequim, Washington to Knoxville, Tennessee. In that process a lot of changes were made and it has been a roller coaster ride. All the while, Suzy never lost site of the customer. Making sure they are taken care of while doing her best to keep the high standards of product quality the Duffs are known for while trying to stay as competitive as possible with her pricing. She made a conscious decision with the move to focus more on what makes them different than the other Bronco parts houses, in house design and manufacturing versus just warehousing of parts. Also trying to keep the majority of Duff's products American made.

The James Duff of Sequim was much larger. Suzy knew what chaos it is to run a place that large required. This also went along with her decision to stick with what makes Duff different than the other guys. A much smaller team works very hard the moment they walk in the door. Many of them wear 2-3 hats juggling customers orders, calling vendors, trouble shooting and research and development. Suzy knew she needed an all star team to make the business run smooth. She has been pouring her heart and soul into this business and her only real personal time was going to all the Bronco events she could pack in. That's really what makes the long hours every week worthwhile. Visiting with Bronco people and wheeling is like hitting the reset button!

Last April, the stars aligned and Suzy not only found her a great partner to go wheeling with she found a guy that could run the production department, take point with R&D, build the prototypes, handle quality control and upgrade/maintain the Bronco fleet. Now Suzy's Team of Duffs is getting even more dialed in and we thought it would be a great opportunity to share with all our Bronco brothers and sisters everything cool and exciting at James Duff. We give you the Daily Duff.

Feel free to interject your thoughts and commentary as we share with you the people, Broncos and products of James Duff.

Many of you know Suzy and her parents, Suzy was born into the Bronco business and has a gift for style and design. She isn't just a figurehead or PR person, she's got experience. She can hang with the guys in that she can look at most anything in the shop or a Bronco part and tell you how it works where it's weaknesses and strengths are and tweak it in such a way so it's even better. We'll get into that more later.

Her mom and dad are retired but that hasn't stopped them from being part of Suzy's support team. Judy (Momma Duff) is amazing with the company computer system. She's mastered it over the years. It's quite common for her to come in a couple days a week and make sure the systems are running properly. Jim helps out anyway he can, bouncing ideas off him from R&D to running around town grabbing supplies to build parts or maintain the business. He's even got his own project he's working. No spoiler alert though.

Mike (not Monster Mike) and Bryan aka Beebo are our lead tech support and they also takes care of customer service/sales.

Daren is our purchasing agent. Not only is he in charge of ordering all the correct quantities of components and hardware he takes our prototypes and draws them up in cad then gives a life size drawing to make our templates with and to get our metal pieces laser cut. He is also our liaison with the machine shops, casting, powder coating and plating companies.

The warehouse which includes manufacturing, packaging and shipping is ran by Michael aka Monster Mike. He also in charge of quality control. He started in September of 2014. Since he's become a Duff team member he's also taken over R&D & prototyping. Michael is always in the middle of 4 new product launches and is excited to share them with all you guys when he gets a chance. He's also been busy going through everything on the shelves, selling off products and parts we no longer need and reorganizing so we're even more productive.

Tony and Mike (also not Monster Mike) are our weldors and parts builders. These two guys strive to be better everyday. They're both eager to work hard and lay a perfect weld down. They're also working with Monster Mike to ensure every part they build leaves with the highest quality. It's nice to have such positive guys working in the shop every day proud to produce products for us!

Between Suzy running the front side of the business and Michael running the backside they're really excited for 2016! They thought to each other, why keep this to ourselves we'd like everyone to see what's going on in the world of Duff.

We'll be using this thread to update you guys with news & product developments, hopefully on a pretty regular basis!

 
Last edited:

WheelHorse

Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 22, 2004
Messages
2,491
How about an email newsletter?

Thanks for the update; it certainly was a good read.
 

Monster Mike

Sponsor/Vendor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Messages
1,768
There is a newsletter in place but its only sent out 6 times a year. This is more of a Daily/weekly update. you could almost consider it as a Duff's Build thread for the business ;D

Plus an added bonus you guys and gals get to interact with us or in my case give me a hard time…it seems to be a favorite hobby for some of the guys on here LOL
 

sprdv1

Contributor
REBEL
Joined
Mar 8, 2007
Messages
81,734
Love it, I gotta finish up the thread later, work to do at home, uggh.

We Luv Duff!! ;)
 

englewoodcowboy

Lick Creek Restorations
Joined
Jul 25, 2010
Messages
4,200
Awesome news. While working on Blue71's red 77 this weekend he and I were talking about you guys and wondering if your going to bring a 2.5" suspension back to the market?
 

EpeditionBronc

Jr. Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
97
Also trying to keep the majority of Duff's products American made.

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Subscried.

D
 

Dannyboy71

Sr. Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2011
Messages
420
I love to see new stuff for the old Broncos. I will be keeping an eye open for your post. How about building a cross member for the 4r70W with the 4x4 tail housing. I cant be the only one that wants it!
 

WASP1971

Full Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2005
Messages
269
Loc.
Mary Esther, Florida
Not sure if you have seen the AR15 radius arm fiasco in the vender forum but I'm ready to call BC Broncos and have my deposit refunded. I have your long arms on my 78 and I'll most likely be ordering a set for my 69. I appreciate y'all's hard work and I think you make great products.
 

stlo

Bronco Guru
Joined
Mar 1, 2011
Messages
1,228
Loc.
tulsa
Thanks guys.... Suzy and the team are great bunch of folks.....I have duff blue all over mine.....look forward to seeing the new parts and r&d.......thanks duff
 

71broncman

Sr. Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2009
Messages
407
Loc.
Woodland Park, Co
Thanks for the update. I have quite a bit of Duff Tuff stuff on my '71. It's good to know that you're keeping it "Made in America" because that matters to me.
Mark.
 

Monster Mike

Sponsor/Vendor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Messages
1,768
You guys make me feel so honored to be Part of the Duff Team. Thank you all for your awesome support. Ill do my very best to help make everyones Duff experience a great one. Hopefully the sales/tech guys and the shipper will too lol


Awesome news. While working on Blue71's red 77 this weekend he and I were talking about you guys and wondering if your going to bring a 2.5" suspension back to the market?

I sure wish we could say yes to this but for now were just not seeing enough demand for them. :cry:

wasp1971…I hear ya brother. tough spot to be in for all involved

I love to see new stuff for the old Broncos. I will be keeping an eye open for your post. How about building a cross member for the 4r70W with the 4x4 tail housing. I cant be the only one that wants it!

Im not against this idea. biggest hurdle is finding all the parts and doing the install. I used to own all that stuff in my personal stash. ill put it on the idea list. if someone has a working prototype we could make the jigs and mass produce it.

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Put this on a T shirt. I want one or two even on a hoodie!

Of course your residence would need updating.

Thats a pretty sweet idea ill pass it on for review! Suzy is right in the middle of a new shirt/hoodie design and its looking pretty killer :cool:
 

bax

Contributor
Old Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2005
Messages
14,491
Not sure if you have seen the AR15 radius arm fiasco in the vender forum but I'm ready to call BC Broncos and have my deposit refunded. I have your long arms on my 78 and I'll most likely be ordering a set for my 69. I appreciate y'all's hard work and I think you make great products.

Oh I got to go read up on that. let me guess, proven design vs promised design?
 

No Hay

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 4, 2014
Messages
1,657
Good to see "The Daily Duff" with the insight into the company and people behind it. The employee histories can make it feel more personal. It was different after leaving Sequim.

Kevin
 
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