“We find ourselves saying ‘no’
more often to parts that we feel other people could make and be competi- tive at, [while we] focus on things we do well and are competitive at,” said Dine. “Many of our people have been here for a long time and are highly skilled. We rely on them to do these jobs by hand. Everybody has the right and the responsibility to stop some- thing if they don’t think it’s right. In our processes, they rely on looking at pictures, because we don’t run certain things all the time, so their skill level is very valuable to us here.”
Revamping the Business
Te new management team’s cost-saving efforts were offset by their need to retain skilled workers. Te co- owners share profits among all of their employees, today. “My focus is creating balance for our employees,” said Dine. “In the past, we’d been in here on
weekends quite often,” said Lenhart. “Angela eliminated weekend work except when necessary, and I attribute that in huge part to our success.” Within Dine’s first year, the
facility’s capacity increased 25% just as a result of working on flow and repairing equipment. “Part of our philosophy has been
working leaner and smarter,” she said. “We’re landlocked, so we try to make use of our space. With improvements, we found we could stop using an area for one process and create an oppor- tunity to do something else there. Tat was how we added a heat treat furnace, which was a big investment, but our customers valued it.” A new tumble blast machine,
revamped blasting equipment and new finishing booths brought the cleaning area—the final stop for castings—into the modern era. “It made a sweeping change in that whole area, taking it from a bottleneck to a space that’s clean and where work moves through very smoothly,” said Perts. Finishing is equipped with individual air makeup and sound attenuation in each booth, which doesn’t eliminate the need for powered air purifying respirators but improves the conditions and the work.
New cleaning booths in the finishing area are equipped with air quality and sound attenuation features to improve the work environment.
In December 2012, the company
revamped its sand system in a continu- ous effort to modernize the operation to run cleaner and more efficiently.
Ensuring Education St Marys Foundry employs
mostly local people who are trained internally as well as by equipment suppliers and a local college. “We try to move people around,
if there’s an interest in another area of operations,” said Dine. When an employee moves from one area to, for example, metallurgy, first there is a 12-week course on the melt department. Melt training covers all facets of melting and metallurgy, and how that relates to gating and risering in the casting. “Tey get exposed to all of [the information], but the real focus is the metal quality and what goes into that based on the different types of castings that we make,” said Perts. “Te turnover has gone way down in the melt department,” said Dine, “I think because when you under- stand why you’re doing what you’re doing, it makes you feel more a part of the process.” St Marys holds classes for custom-
ers, also, many of whom don’t know much about the casting process. An initiative to increase safety
took place once the company’s finan- cial turnaround was in effect. Te company targets excellence in both safety and quality. “I emphasize to our employees
that you can get a lot of things back, but it’s really hard to get your reputa- tion back, so that’s why we follow the processes and work safely,” said Dine. Turnover among the established
employees is minimal, according to Lenhart. “When you spend money on people to train them, they see that they’re valuable,” he said. Since making improvments outside the facility and in overall operations, he added, “We get a lot of very posi- tive comments from the community, as well.” “You feel the pride here,” said
Dine. “We’ve made this plant what it should be the hard way. If we wanted something fixed, we earned the cash. We have no debt and have completely overhauled the plant. Te next phase will be coming soon with one of our core rooms.” As St Marys Foundry progresses,
it is continuing to look to process improvements as well as opportuni- ties in new markets like energy. “We’re at the stage now where we
can do the things we want to do,” said Dine.
September 2014 MODERN CASTING | 25
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