Competing as a Captive Flowserve Plant


Flowserve Corp.’s captive Dayton Foundry found its niche, streamlined its operations and is breaking even, rather than costing the company money.


Shannon Wetzel, Senior Editor M 26


ost jobbing metalcast- ing facilities are famil- iar with the pressure of competing with lower cost sources, both


domestically and globally. But that pressure is not reserved for job shops alone. Flowserve Corp.’s predomi- nantly captive metalcasting facility in Dayton, Ohio, has lost orders to low cost suppliers. Like typical job- bing facilities, Dayton Foundry has had to establish a place for itself within the Flowserve organization and the few commercial markets it currently supplies. “Some may think being captive


means no offsite competition,” said Fran Porreca, Dayton Foundry’s gener- al manager. “However, the Flowserve foundries do not automatically receive orders because we are a Flowserve company. We have to be competitive


with any and all outside suppliers. Otherwise, Flowserve can and will go to those outside suppliers.” Inevitably, as the pump and valves enterprise of Flowserve globalized, a signifi cant portion of its casting purchases were moved to outside, low-cost sources, and Dayton Foundry


Flowserve Dayton Foundry Dayton, Ohio


Metals Cast: Stainless steel, nickel- base alloys, cobalt-base alloys, titanium and zirconium.


Casting Processes: Investment, shell, nobake, green sand and centrifugal casting.


Value-Added Services: Machining, painting and assembly.


Employees: 120


was left with open capacity. In 2006, the corporation committed to seeking outside casting orders to better utilize the facility’s operations and fi nally help it turn a profi t. “In October 2006, a new manage-


ment team was brought in, and the company said, ‘Let’s give it one more try to make some money,’” Porreca said. With fi ve separate processes (no-


bake, investment, shell sand, green sand and centrifugal casting) under one roof for steel castings and a sec- ond operation producing titanium and zirconium parts, Flowserve’s Dayton Foundry was designed to be vertically integrated within its parent company and manufacture the vast majority of the cast components needed for its pump and valve assemblies. Essen- tially, each process was operated as a separate metalcasting facility, but in trying to become more competitive in


MODERN CASTING / June 2010


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