Jennifer Rutz – DCM Tech

A stack of metal discs sat on a workbench inside DCM Tech’s Winona, Minnesota, production facility, each polished to a finish most people would never notice. To Jen Rutz, the parts represented more than tolerances or production schedules. They represented a family company built over five decades, a team of employees (intentionally referred to as “coworkers”) who had spent careers perfecting a craft, and the responsibility she stepped into in late 2023.

Jennifer Rutz | DCM Tech | Preside

Rutz jokes that she is a “recovering attorney,” but her transition from law to manufacturing has become more than a career pivot. It has become a mission to modernize a 51-year-old American manufacturer while preserving the culture, loyalty, and technical excellence that built it.

Founded in 1975 by Dave Arnold and Dan Rukavina, DCM Tech manufactures precision surface-grinding machines used across industries, including automotive, aerospace, semiconductor, food processing, photonics, additive manufacturing, tooling, and rare-earth magnet markets. The family-owned company, solely owned by the Arnolds since 1996, has over 5,000 machines operating across North America, employs 34 people, and builds every machine in Minnesota.

For years, DCM relied on engineering expertise, customer service, and reputation to generate business – and that worked. Rutz arrived with a different lens at a time when sales were slowing. With a marketing degree from the University of St. Thomas, a law degree from the University of Minnesota, and experience as both an attorney and business owner, she saw an opportunity to pair technical strength with a more deliberate growth strategy.

“DCM had historically relied more on its reputation, relationships, and product performance than on formal marketing efforts, which created a strong opportunity for growth through more intentional, direct marketing efforts,” Rutz says.

That realization has shaped much of her early presidency.

Finding her footing

Rutz grew up around entrepreneurship. Business conversations were common in her family, even though she never expected to lead DCM Tech. Her father and brother, former president Dan Arnold, are both mechanical engineers. Rutz followed a different path, building a legal career focused on estate planning and transactional business matters.

Her move into DCM was not the result of a long-planned succession strategy. The opportunity emerged as her brother prepared to retire after 25 years leading the company. Rutz joined DCM in December 2023 and quickly found herself immersed in grinding technologies, automation, production schedules, sales, employee benefits, and the daily realities of a small manufacturer.

On paper, she admits she did not have the conventional background many would expect. What she brought was a willingness to learn, a collaborative leadership style, and the confidence to introduce change without dismissing what already worked.

“Leadership isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about listening to the people who do,” Rutz says.

That honesty helped her gain trust. Many long-term coworkers remembered her from childhood visits to the business, which gave her some built-in rapport. Still, the learning curve was steep as she listened to engineers, production coworkers, and Technical Specialists explain how the company’s machines are built, sold, installed, serviced, and improved.

Building a growth strategy

One of Rutz’s first priorities was expanding DCM’s marketing infrastructure. Historically, the company’s engineering-driven approach produced loyal customers and steady work, but it also limited visibility. DCM could attend trade shows and still meet potential customers who had never heard of the company, despite its decades in business.

Rutz recognized that DCM’s challenge was not capability. It was a lack of brand awareness.

The company’s machines are useful in many industries, but that breadth made marketing difficult. Rather than trying to reach every possible customer at once, Rutz helped identify eight primary markets where DCM already had traction and growth potential. That segmentation now guides lead nurturing, content, trade shows, and sales outreach.

The company also added two dedicated marketing personnel, a major shift for a business that had long depended on its product to speak for itself. Rutz’s goal is controlled expansion supported by clearer messaging and a sales process that reflects a long buying cycle.

“We’re focused on building brand awareness and consistently reaching qualified leads, knowing that sales are built over time through relationships and trust,” Rutz says.

The approach is gaining traction. After a challenging 2024, DCM rebounded in 2025 and projects further growth in 2026, but Rutz is careful about pace, knowing that quality and culture cannot be sacrificed for volume.

Advancing automation

While marketing has become a major priority, Rutz is also helping DCM better explain the technology that sets its machines apart.

One of the company’s most important advantages is its use of PLC-controlled machines rather than CNC-controlled systems common among competitors. CNC equipment often requires experienced machinists, while DCM can train new operators without machining experience on their PLC-driven machines within a day. In an industry facing a shortage of skilled machinists, this usability gives manufacturers a meaningful advantage.

Rutz has worked with the company’s engineering and sales teams to make that point a central part of DCM’s value proposition.

The company is also expanding robot-ready machine configurations that integrate with customer automation systems. As manufacturers invest in lights-out production to offset labor constraints, DCM’s ability to connect precision grinding with robotics positions it well for the next stage of factory automation.

Another major development priority is native in-process measuring, which would allow machines to gauge material removal in real time during grinding. This capability reduces rework, improves quality control, and eliminates the need for certain third-party measurement systems.

Rather than directing every technical solution from the top down, DCM relies heavily on its Technical Specialists to gather customer feedback in the field and bring those insights back to the engineering team. That ongoing collaboration helps shape machine improvements, guide product development priorities, and ensure new solutions are grounded in actual customer applications and challenges.

Strength through people

Despite DCM’s technical sophistication, Rutz often returns to the people behind the machines. More than half of the company’s coworkers work on the production floor, and many have spent decades with the organization. Their longevity reinforces the loyalty that has defined the company since its earliest days. It also reminds Rutz of the responsibility that comes with leading a business that people depend on.

She quickly learned that the presidency involved far more than strategy and sales. Human resources, benefits, healthcare decisions, hiring, and workforce planning became immediate responsibilities. Employee benefits, in particular, were more complex than she expected.

“I knew almost nothing about employee benefits,” Rutz says. “It is complex and difficult.”

Rather than pretend every decision is easy, Rutz emphasizes transparency. She works closely with coworkers to understand the options under consideration, the reasoning behind decisions, and the care being taken to balance costs with the desire to do right by the team.

That responsibility follows her outside the office, where much of her time is spent with family and travel. She jokes that she spends hours each evening transporting family members from one place to another, but she also makes room for family camping and a planned summer trip to the Grand Tetons.

For Rutz, leading DCM Tech is not about becoming the company’s top engineer. It is about building trust, asking better questions, valuing expertise, and helping a quiet manufacturing success story explain its value more clearly to the world.

As DCM moves deeper into its next generation of leadership, its future may depend on the same precision its machines have always delivered. Under Rutz, that precision is extending beyond the production floor and into strategy, communication, and the long-term vision guiding the company forward.