sales and service manager, a 35-year veteran of the metalcasting industry, and Mike Bader as operations man- ager, who has been in the industry since 1981. “I’m not a foundry guy,” Wolfgram
said. “Trough this whole thing, I’ve relied on the experience of those around me to make quality castings. What I brought to the table was organization and business logic. Take care of the customer with quality and on-time delivery. I tell our customers ‘our job is to keep you out of trouble by providing what you need when you need it.’”
One unavoidable challenge for a job shop such as Anchor Castings is the size of its workforce. With 10 full-time employees on the shop floor, a single absence can be a major blow to production. Not only is that 10% of the workforce, the expertise of each worker is amplified in such a setting. In order to minimize disruptions, Anchor Castings tries to diversify the skill sets of its workers. Te work- force is small but turnover is remains relatively low. “If one person is sick or there’s a
family issue, someone else has to pick up the slack,” Kiekhaefer said. “We don’t have an abundance of people to fill in or move from one department to another. Our guys are cross-trained and flexible, but we are naturally lim- ited by the size of our workforce.” Working eight hour shifts Mon-
day through Friday, the workforce is expected to help out in any possible way. Wolfgram points to having two
Anchor Castings pours 15 different alloys, with roughly 25% of its production being aluminum.
trained patternmakers on staff who work in different departments. “They are not here as pattern-
makers, but they are experienced,” he said. “They are plenty able to work on patterns that are here. It’s a real benefit to have people in-house who can fix patterns if need be. That can save us a lot of time and trouble for certain jobs. Their expertise helps with rigging patterns and pouring procedures, saving us and the customer time and money.”
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Contact Richard Cox at 847-987-0967
richard.cox@
yxlon.com /
www.yxlon.com
March 2016 MODERN CASTING | 39
Fast & Flexible In addition to a flexible workforce,
Anchor Castings must be able to react to changing production demands. Being a short run job shop, the facil- ity must be able to change priori- ties quickly and efficiently. Should a customer call with an immediate request, the metalcaster must be able to respond. Of the two molding lines, nobake represents about 80% of production
Please visit us at
CASTEXPO April 16-19, 2016 Minneapolis, Minnesota Booth 3044
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