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tive, rail and tool industries. Cast- ings range from simple parts to one recent award-winning component that required 40 cores per mold. When demand spikes, the employ-


ees’ ability to rise to the occasion and produce quality parts quickly is critical to profitability. In the past decade, staffing deficiencies sometimes became painfully evident. “We did what we had to do to meet


Management and workers keep in close communication throughout the plant’s operations.


our customers’ needs, but it didn’t meet our bottom line very well to have people who were not well trained, not showing up and without much inter- est, but still well paid,” Davies said. “Between hiring difficulties and high wages, we need to attract and retain good workers. Tat’s not easy.” Davies determined Lethbridge’s


deregulation happened in 2000 and has been hurting us ever since.” Lethbridge is a 116-year-old


company that has survived many changes. But in recent years, eco- nomic pressures took a toll. Te local economy has not experienced a significant setback, which ordinarily would be considered a good thing, but in Davies’ view, that is another reason it was difficult to reinvest in the company and meet demand. “We found it very hard in the


last two busy periods, in 2007 and 2011,” he said. “We had to ramp up our hiring practice from lots of screening to hiring anyone with a heartbeat. We had to take what we could get, and we suffered finan- cially at that time.” As economic cycles in the industry became more severe, Davies and the executive team realized they needed to take steps to improve the situation. The solution was to change their management style even as the facility itself underwent a major expansion. The company will run two separate casting operations onsite in Lethbridge, when the project is complete. Combining equipment improve- ments with better communication and training already has proved synergistic for the company, result- ing in an upward trend that is


expected to continue through the second phase of its revitalization.


Meeting the Hiring Challenge


Lethbridge Iron Works pours ductile and gray iron castings from 1 to 500 lbs. in runs ranging between 50 and 500,000 pieces for customers in the oil and gas, agricultural, automo-


hiring challenges to be high turnover, low productivity, high absenteeism, low morale and a high level of workers com- pensation claims. He and the rest of the team set about determining what needed to be done to address those issues. Prior to 2007, hiring had involved


several prescreening steps: • Initial interview and background check • High school diploma or equiva- lency requirement


Tablet computers distributed throughout the shop floor collect data for reporting. August 2014 MODERN CASTING | 23


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