Tower safety is not a theoretical concept to be figured out in a boardroom at Buckingham Manufacturing. Product development is initiated on-site, using workers on the job. For that reason, for 126 years, Buckingham has been a trusted safety equipment manufacturer for linemen, arborists, and telecom professionals.
It was back in 1896, not long after cities began to be electrified using utility poles and the first telegraph poles began to be strung between cities, when Wilmot Stephens founded The Stephens Company in Binghamton, NY, which made Lineman’s Pole Climbing Spikes that would attach to boots for safely climbing utility poles. In fact, just an hour west of Binghamton, in Ithaca, NY, the first telegraph pole was designed by Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University.
Several years later in 1913, W.H. Buckingham purchased The Stephens Company, changed the name to Buckingham Manufacturing Co., Inc. and expanded its products to include linemen’s body belts, safety straps, climber pads, knives, and other tools. Buckingham became a supplier to AT&T and then the Bell operating companies after the breakup. The company was there to keep tower climbers safe when the cellular industry began in the 1980s, as well as serve the electrical utility and cable industries.
Andy Batty, Jr. and a new management team took ownership in 1984 and has grown the company substantially since then, offering fall protection and work positioning equipment. Under those two categories, the products include wireless tower harnesses, tower energy absorbing lanyards, tower personal fall limiters and tower rescue, among other equipment.
“We try to make the workers in the industries we serve more efficient, more effective and safer,” Tim Batty, Buckingham Group General Manager and son of Andy Batty Jr. said. “If the equipment does any of those things, we will provide it to them. That’s our goal.”
Obsessively Paying Attention to the User
Today, Buckingham is a privately held family business that is still operated out of Binghamton. It maintains an obsessive focus on the end user, continually soliciting information from its users on how to improve its current equipment in an attempt to solve climber problems.
“By just listening to the users, we’re able to come up with new innovative ideas,” Batty said. “If you listen, they usually will tell you what they want, and then we do our best to give them exactly what they need to meet their expectations.”
Buckingham goes into the field to learn about equipment needs directly from the users. From that feedback, it builds a sample and sends it back to the field for more feedback. That process repeats until they have a satisfactory piece of equipment.
“I think what sets us apart is that laser-focus on the customer, the end user and solving their product needs. We try to be open and willing to try nearly any idea. It’s not easy. But we think in the long run it makes a better product,” Batty said.
When people’s lives depend on a product, maintaining quality control is of the utmost importance. For Buckingham, that means making every employee a final inspector and having customer quality advocates that roam the facilities, checking everyone’s work and making sure employees have the tools to be successful.
Buckingham is also an ISO-certified company (ISO 9001: 2015), and it has an ISO 17025: 2017 accredited test lab. Plus, it follows industry standards including OSHA, ANSI, ASTM, CSA and CE requirements. “We do all our own internal testing, which allows us to be flexible to develop a lot of unique customized products,” Batty said.
Fall protection has evolved over the years as materials have become stronger and lighter. Buckingham continuously evaluates all the new technological changes in terms of function, availability, cost, and comfort. “Materials are always changing,” Batty said. “The manufacturers of webbing and rope do a tremendous job of putting a lot of time and effort into coming up with the best materials.”
What Is Next
In the future, the company has plans to expand its product line. Although it plans more hardware and soft goods in the long term, Buckingham tempers its outlook with an eye on the day-to-day ability of its operations.
“Right now, we just need to make sure that our manufacturing capacity is high enough to meet the demands of our customers and that our supply chain is strong and robust before we start releasing more products,” Batty said. “We’re building a great foundation today so that in two to five years from now, we’ll be able to really hit the ground running.”
To learn more about Buckingham Manufacturing, click here, email sales@buckinghammfg.com or call (607)773-2400.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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