“Employees are the key to business success these days. It starts at the top and must
filter down to the shop floor. Tis requires commitment at all levels. Te number one reason people leave their jobs is their boss, not their pay or conditions.”—John Davies
precisely as we can, and [using a jig] makes it easier for them to place the cores,” Davies said. “We’ll have one to four people on this deck, so we’ve also installed a light guard so they can step in between molds safely and without having to stop the machine.” Lethbridge’s workers use iPads
on the shop floor to interface with the management system, which also collects data for auditing. “Tere are no guarantees when you start a guy that he’ll be here
forever,” Davies said. “So your way of doing things, your need for structure definitely does change, the larger you get. We always knew as owner-oper- ators whether we were doing well or not, but now we share more of that information with employees.” In the past, employees didn’t
receive much, if any, feedback on their performance or the company’s overall. Davies and his team created a room—the “Iron Bunker”—dedicated to sharing information, so everyone
can understand the impact of what they do, from daily work planning to profit comparisons as well as metrics on safety, quality and productivity. “The bottom line is profitability but also quality results,” Davies said. “We’re holding employees more accountable on both sides—man- agement and operations—trying to instill in people personal account- ability and recognition for doing a job well.” Shop-floor workers might never
see how a part is designed or where it ultimately goes. So, Lethbridge’s man- agement has started working on giving employees that big picture view. “We make parts for air seeders, so
we had one of the local distributors of the equipment—the finished prod- uct—bring it to our parking lot for a few days,” Davies said. “Te employees were able to see exactly where the metal part goes, what it does and why it has the attributes it has. We also try
28 | MODERN CASTING August 2014
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