Eventually, that grinder became the com- pany’s full-time IT person. “We gave him one challenge after
another, and he kept rising to the challenge,” Gimeno said. “Tere is talent within a company, so much hidden talent.” Fostering the hidden talent is part of
O’Fallon Casting’s transition planning as senior managers begin to retire. Junior engineers are held responsible for intro- ducing and implementing new technol- ogy and methods to the facility. Tey are given continuous improvement projects to lead in order to learn about the whole facility and process. “Within the next 10 years all the top
managers from 2003 will be retired,” Gimeno said. “Our young professionals will be running the company by then.” In order to streamline its production,
O’Fallon Casting teamed up with soft- ware company Castit to design custom- ized production software. Launched in 2008, the Castit software is constantly being improved, and Gimeno said operators are encouraged to bring their ideas to the programmers. For example, the quotes module of the software was adapted to identify whether a part has core passages, overall dimensions, nondestructive testing requirements and metal type similar to an existing part. In another case, O’Fallon Casting was expe- riencing instances of operators bypassing a step in the hardness testing, so one of the operators suggested adding a require- ment that the program would not move forward unless the step was performed and entered correctly and completely. “Programmers aren’t in the trenches, so our operators are asked for their input,” Gimeno said. O’Fallon Casting’s internal metrics,
such as target for customer returns, show significant year over year improvement. “Te Castit production software is
a robust quality tool,” Gimeno said. “It shows us not only who worked on a part, but also the process variables at the time the part was produced.” Te program—accessible by any
operator at their work station— includes tons of reference material, such as a pre-inspection defect manual to help identify defect types and pos- sible causes. “We are always looking at ways
January 2014 MODERN CASTING | 33
of making it easier on the operator,” Gimeno said. “We have been steadily increasing our output within the same floorspace. We have grown our infra- structure to a capacity that will now sustain even greater levels of output.”
Sales Strategy Along with the technological
changes, O’Fallon Casting made changes to its sales strategy, as well. One of the main growth opportunities identified was customer education. “We recognize that some special
expertise is required when design- ing investment castings, and that we face intense competition from other processes that are easier to design for,”
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