Global Finishing Solutions® (GFS) is a vertical manufacturer, dedicated to developing high-quality paint booths and finishing environments for a wide variety of industries — including aerospace, automotive refinish and industrial businesses. GFS strives to meet the unique needs of every customer across the globe with pre-engineered and custom solutions for paint prep, application, curing and storage.
GFS’ Quality Management System is certified to ISO 9001:2015 by Smithers Quality Assessments, demonstrating GFS’ unwavering commitment to quality and dedication to delivering best-in-class products that are trusted by our customers.
Headquartered in Osseo, Wisconsin, GFS has an extensive history of providing the aerospace, automotive refinish and industrial finishing industries with exceptional equipment and services, helping businesses maximize productivity and achieve flawless finishes.
At GFS, we pride ourselves on being the leader in the finishing industry. Our continued success is made possible by our talented, hardworking employees. We aim to provide our employees with every opportunity to make an impact on the company. This is especially true for a company of our size and culture. Although a large, growing business — with more than 300 employees — our heart is rooted in small-town, homegrown values. To continue growing our business, we welcome you to join the GFS family.
We are focused on our family of exceptional employees. With a people-first approach and limitless opportunities, our people have every chance to flourish.
Never forgetting that business decisions impact people's lives, we infuse fairness and professionalism into all that we do.
Side by side, striving for shared goals, we align with people who share our core values and exceed our expertise.
With keen eyes and vast resources, we constantly think ahead to be better and go farther for long-term success.
We abide by unwavering standards of ethics and walk-the-talk principals. Our corporate culture is so steeped in character, it holds up even when the lights are off.
Global Finishing Solutions® (GFS) is proud to be represented by the finest distribution network in the paint booth and finishing equipment industry. Our experienced, dedicated distributors span throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and around the world. This expansive distribution network allows us the ability to provide consulting, training, installation, service, maintenance and parts and filters support on a local level to all of our customers.
GFS is a family-owned and operated company, focused on our family of exceptional employees. This “people first” approach has always led our success. With this foundation and limitless opportunities, our people have every chance to flourish.
Our commitment to “people first” works from the inside out. Never forgetting that business decisions impact people’s lives, we infuse fairness and professionalism into all that we do. The dignity and courtesy we extend to our family of employees carries on to our customers, business associates and vendors.
Side by side, striving for shared goals — we believe that’s how the best work gets done, and that’s why we treat business relationships as true partnerships. We align with people who share our core values and exceed our expertise. Working together, we all succeed.
We’ve built a corporate culture so steeped in character, it holds up even when the lights are off. In our core, we abide by unwavering standards of ethics and walk-the-talk principles. This is more than corporate speak; our integrity — who we are when the lights are off — is everything.
We are constantly planning, innovating and improving. We invest and reinvest to ensure the health and longevity of our company. With keen eyes and vast resources, we constantly think ahead to be better and go farther for long-term success.
“Working at GFS has allowed — and encouraged — me the flexibility of having a life outside of work, coach my kids in multiple sports, as well as being able to grow as a leader and a person.”
Over the past six years, I have moved up from an Assembler on the Oven Line to a Machine Operator, and most recently, a Brake Press Operator. When production was slow one day this year, our lead, Gary, asked for volunteers to help a neighboring company, Titan Air. We were working four, nine-hour days, with four hours on Fridays, whereas Titan employees were working five, 10-hour days, plus Saturdays — you could say they were pretty busy. I volunteered, and so did my coworker, Sam. We helped them in the assembly of Air Make-Up Units (AMUs). Every so often, some of our welders went over to help out as well. Not only was it cool to see other processes and ways of doing things, it was cool to see how the AMUs we use on our own paint booths get made. I’m glad we were able to help out another company, and they were more than accommodating. They did an excellent job at making us feel important and included. They even invited us to their company golf outing and gave us Titan Air baseball caps for helping out.
I’ve been with GFS for 14 years. I started at GFS’ facility in Mexico and worked there for six years. When we got notified that the Mexico facility was shutting down, they offered jobs for both me and my husband at GFS’ headquarters in Osseo, Wisconsin. At that time, crime was starting to get really bad in Mexico, so my husband and I took the opportunity for our family and careers. We knew that our girls would grow up in a safe environment in Osseo. We also knew that GFS is a good company, and we liked the people. I knew most of the people in Osseo because I worked with them on a daily basis as the production scheduler for our automotive refinish business unit.
The job I took was in the industrial sales department. It was a change, learning to use our system in a different way and selling a different product line. They were really patient with me, and treated me with respect, explaining new things to me as many times as needed. The team is great, and I love working with them. My transition was really smooth, and my daughters adjusted really quickly because they were so young.
To me, integrity is making decisions for the right reasons, and not constantly changing your decision based on your workload or when no one is looking.
Our team shows integrity in the biggest way by maintaining quality. Often, we don’t have a lot of turnaround time to get things ready to go out the door, and it’s up to us to stop it if there’s an issue. I always try to put myself in a customer’s shoes — would I pay for this? Would I want it to show up like this? It’s important to make sure everything is right and looks nice for the customer before it leaves our facility.
“Improvement is understanding that failure is often an integral part of advancement and success when implementing process. changes. Failure leads us to a deeper understanding of what’s going to work and what’s not going to work. Setting lofty goals that are hard to achieve can generate unexpected outcomes. If you’re not failing sometimes, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough to succeed and find those improvements.
“It’s human nature to have aversion to change. We all get comfortable in the day-to-day luxury of our thought process and the repetition of it. To get everyone to think outside of that comfort box, they need to be involved in the improvement process. Everyone needs to have a voice and be heard, and to feel like they’re not being spurned by the changes that are being made. Their thoughts and ideas for improvement are welcomed with open arms.
“Improvement means going above and beyond your typical workload. It is going to take extra hours, but that extra effort should eventually pay off, as the short-term sacrifices are going to be worth those long-term improvements and gains. And improvement must be a team effort. Wherever we want to go and whatever we want to do, we need each other to make it happen.
“When you have a heavy focus on improvement, you start to realize that it’s a never-ending process. Sometimes, you get caught up in, ‘What’s the next improvement we need to make? What’s the next step we have to take?’ But you also need to take the time to celebrate your wins and accomplishments.”
“You don’t stay at a job for almost 30 years if you don’t like the people you work with — I love them like family!”
Discover the technical advancements that have heightened the importance of the prep area
