Building Success:

Jose Sanchez and SSMD

It's no secret that the team at SSMD is great at what they do. Cylinders are the literal and figurative lynchpin of their entire operation, and they make sure they'll never fail you. 

They inspect, professionally reseal, and triple-test every cylinder that comes through their doors – and tell you what to look out for in the future.

And where do we get this professionalism from? It all goes back to the beginning with Jose Sanchez: founder, part owner, and lead man at SSMD.

Starting Out

Experience is the name of the hydraulics repair game, and Jose has built his experience up for a long time.

"I've been fixing up machinery for ages now," he says. "I got my start when I joined Alabama Jack all the way back in 1991."

While at Alabama Jack, Jose picked up the tools of the trade. He learned all about repair and maintenance for cylinders, jacks of all kinds, hydraulic pumps, lube pumps, you name it.

And one day, Jose saw an opportunity.

"We lost our cylinder technician, and I stepped up from shop foreman to fill the role. That's where I started really building up my experience with hydraulics specifically."

After years of learning and building skills, Jose decided it was time to start building something himself. So in 2015, he founded S&S in Warrior, Alabama.

Family Business

The best way to build something is with family – and that's exactly what Jose did.

"That second 'S' in S&S is also a Sanchez," Jose jokes. "My son, Cruz."

Cruz wasn't sitting idly by while his dad built up his cylinder skills. Cruz learned alongside his father, putting him on par with the best technicians out there. 

"I think that in this industry at least, experience will always beat out outside knowledge of the process," Jose says. "Working with machinery requires hands-on experience. I have thirty-two years of it, my son has fifteen years of it, and my nephew Isaiah has seven years of it. That puts us on the map even though we're a small outfit."

Going Strong and Growing Stronger

Eventually, as with most businesses, Jose came up against something tough. That ‘something’ was the same obstacle that took out so many businesses recently.

"COVID came and hit us hard by hitting our clients hard,” he says. “Construction slowed down, and that meant repairs and tuneups – all the things we contribute to the industry – slowed down, too."

But that just meant it was time to grow some more. In 2022, Jose and S&S took on new partners and relocated to Birmingham, becoming the SSMD of today. The newly-minted company hasn’t been here long, but SSMD has already serviced over 175 businesses in the short time it's been active, including big names like:

• Maxim Crane

• Nucor Steel

• Heavy Machines, LLC

• Reno Refractories, Inc.

• Altec NUECO

• And many more

One of those jobs happened to be the largest Jose has ever overseen – repairing two 6,000 lbs cylinders. 

But SSMD isn't stopping there. Jose and his team plan on expanding the business into new frontiers, helping more businesses, and tackling bigger jobs.

"The goal for us right now would be to just keep on growing. More employees, more equipment, and the like," Jose says.

That includes procuring a service truck with its own crane so the skilled workers of SSMD can travel to clients for onsite work/retrieval of heavy-duty equipment. 

SSMD has even begun the preliminary steps needed to add machining to the list of services, meaning we'll be building parts – not just repairing them.

No Rest for the Best

There's not a lot of room for rest when you're repairing the machinery responsible for building up the world – much less so when you're in charge of seeing that through. But Jose manages.

"I try to put every free second I have to use," he says. “That can be hunting or fishing or just cracking open a beer with my son."

No matter what, though, Jose and the rest of SSMD are right back to it sooner rather than later. But they don't mind the heavy lifting. It's the job, after all.