Navistar’s Indianapolis Engine Caster to Return to Production
after a last minute vote two days prior, the union accepted compensation reductions and fl exible work rules in order to keep the facility running. Production at the plant is expected
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to resume in late January 2011. Ac- cording to Rick Bacon, director of metalcasting facilities, Navistar had built up an inventory of engine blocks and heads and entered into contracts with other suppliers in the anticipation of the Indianapolis plant’s closure. It will take a few months, he said, to work through the inventory before production can resume. The company is still determining which work will come back to the currently captive block and head maker. Navistar expects to start back up
with 45 hourly employees and 25 managerial employees, as the plant initially will be operating at 30% ca- pacity. In 2009, the plant employed 262 hourly employees and 77 mana- gerial employees. Bacon said the Indianapolis plant
will become part of Navistar’s new company, Pure Power Technologies, which also includes Navistar’s other metalcasting facility in Waukesha, Wis. “Because [the two metalcasting
avistar’s engine block and head casting facility in Indianapolis, was set to close July 16, but
facilities] are so different, they both will play a vital role in the success of our company as a whole,” Bacon said. “Indianapolis is a gray and compacted graphite iron foundry capable of mak- ing blocks, heads and larger industrial castings. Waukesha produces smaller, complex ductile iron, ADI and Hi- SiMo castings. They are all valuable products for our industry that don’t compete with each other.” Bacon said Navistar plans to open
up more capacity at Indianapolis to other OEMs, with a goal of orders consisting of 50% Navistar and 50% outside customers. “Indianapolis is currently the only dedicated block and head foundry that is not captive to itself in the U.S.,” Bacon said. “It’s the only one that pro- vides capacity of blocks and heads that is not offshore. We think that should provide a great opportunity for us to exponentially grow the business.” The Indianapolis plant has made
blocks and heads for non-Navistar cus- tomers in the past but to a lesser extent. “With the capacity we had set aside
for Navistar products, we weren’t able to go after the big players earlier,” Bacon said. “Now we are positioning ourselves for long-term success by pursuing non-captive customers in a variety of segments.”
MC
Visit
www.moderncasting. com to hear an audiocast of Navistar vice president and general manager-components Houman Kashanipour discuss the company’s purchasing and sourcing strategies.
grand announcement. While the sales and marketing team worked to bring in new orders, the engineering and metalcasting teams had to fi gure out how to adjust personnel assignments and plant operations to accommodate a different product mix. Through a new union contract, the
facility negotiated fl exibility into its job descriptions, allowing the crew on what was the bedplate molding line to work a different line when necessary. Similarly, line operators are undergoing training for minor maintenance so they can make simple fi xes to the machines themselves, rather than wait for a full maintenance crew. One of the greatest challenges in the transition has been keeping up with the more frequent changeovers. “Today, we launch 50 new parts,
all at the same time, which is new,” Bacon said. The job shop mentality is permeating
throughout Navistar. The engine block and head casting facility in Indianapolis, which will remain open after initial plans to close were abandoned (see sidebar), also will look to ship 50% non- Navistar business through its doors. In the engine assembly plants, the types of Navistar engines have become so varied that the days of rote, high vol- ume production seem to be in the past. “If we build 200 engines a day, all
200 engines could be different,” said Ronald Poland, plant manager for the Navistar Melrose Park Engine Plant, Melrose Park, Ill. “We don’t build to stock. Every engine is a customized order, which is done to satisfy all our customers’ needs. We’ll build today what they are running next.”
Cleaning Up Engine Emissions Navistar’s two metalcasting facilities
Navistar began sourcing some of its blocks and heads from other facilities when it thought its Indianapolis casting facility would be closing. Production is expected to ramp back up in Indianapolis in 2011.
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opening up more capacity to outside OEMs is an indication of a strategy to outsource more of its parts that do not satisfy the casting plants’ core capabilities. However, the truck and engine-maker has made an effort to bring some components integral to the success of its clean emissions technolo-
MODERN CASTING / October 2010
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