Flex-N-Gate
Khan worked at the automotive manufacturing company Flex-N-Gate Corporation while attending the University of Illinois. When he graduated, Khan was hired as the engineering director for the company. In 1978, he started Bumper Works, which made car bumpers for customized pickup trucks and body shop repairs.[10] The funds to start the new business included a $50,000 loan from the Small Business Administration and $16,000 of his own savings.[16]
In 1980, Khan bought Flex-N-Gate from his former employer Charles Gleason Butzow, bringing Bumper Works into the fold. The company grew under him, so that it supplied bumpers for the Big Three automakers. In 1984, Khan began supplying a small number of bumpers for Toyota pickups. By 1987, it was the sole supplier for Toyota pickups, and by 1989, it was the sole supplier for the entire Toyota line in the United States. Adopting the Toyota Way increased company efficiency and ability to change its manufacturing process within a few minutes.[10][17] Since then, the company has grown from $17 million in sales to an estimated $2 billion in 2010 to $8.89 billion in 2020.[18] Its operation in Sandusky, Ohio, is one of the largest automotive light manufacturing plants in the United States.
By 2019, Flex-N-Gate had 25,000 employees and 69 manufacturing plants in the United States, China, Argentina, Spain, France, Germany, Mexico and Canada.[11] In 2020, it had a revenue of $8.9 billion and was ranked as the 46th largest privately held American company by Forbes.[19] It is also ranked by Automotive News as the seventh largest American automotive parts supplier and overall 33rd largest supplier in the world.
In May 2012, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Flex-N-Gate $57,000 for health violations at its Urbana plant.[20] Before the 2012 NFL draft, the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and other environmentalist groups organized a protest campaign for several accusations against Flex-N-Gate and Khan.[21][22]
