Challenge Tradition.

The foundry industry is proud of its rich history and tradition. From the first castings poured more than 5000 years ago and the seven foundrymen who signed the Declaration of Independence to the more than 5000 foundries producing 22 million tons of castings in the U.S. in the. '70s, today's foundrymen applaud their ancestry as builders of this nation and hold in reverence the people, practices and production methods that built our industry.

While this pride is one of the industry's most admirable traits, foundries' inability to evolve from this tradition may be its greatest downfall. History and tradition are great for the classroom and coffee table, but in today's manufacturing world "what have you done for me lately?" reigns supreme. Relying on past glories and "the way things always have been done" more often than not won't get things done.

Manufacturing and the OEM community you are serving likely has changed a little since the '70s (and even a little more since the Revolutionary War). If foundries don't start to question some of their time-honored practices and methods and look to attain a new level of efficiency, quality, customer service, employee retention, etc. never before achieved, the future may not be promising. I am suggesting that you become proactive in your operation and look for improvement opportunities. Then, when you are making a decision-whether it be a change in pouring techniques, marketing strategies or workforce recruitment-and you have come to a fork in the road, maybe take a harder look at the road less traveled (or even find a road never used before). Even if it doesn't work out, I guarantee you and your operation will learn something valuable.

In a search for foundries that have bucked tradition in pursuit of a new and better way of doing things, three examples stand out from my recent travels.

One example is InMetal (profiled on p.35), a rare foundry start-up in lost foam. Without any reputation to speak of, it needed a selling point for potential customers that set itself apart. As a result, its founders decided to bring the "white side" of lost foam (the foam molding) in-house. Except for the large captive lost foam foundries (such as Saturn), foam molding is considered by the lost foam community to be too difficult a "science" to be performed by jobbing foundries. InMetal's founders, however, believed otherwise and have begun to secure prototype work on a first-of-its-kind austempered ductile iron railroad truck assembly.

A second example is a 700-employee captive green sand operation. As the plant's repetitive stress injury rates were on the rise, it made the decision to "modernize" production practices on its core and mold lines. Initially, it examined the suggestions of ergonomics "experts-massive upgrades in technology to eliminate the human element. According to the plant manager, "Many of the large captive foundry operations will just spend the money for the technology and eliminate workers to rest easier at night." For this foundry, that wasn't the answer. Instead, it went to its employees and examined their workstations to determine which movements within the job were causing the injuries. Then, the foundry looked for the simplest solutions, including extending conveyors, adding scissor-lift tables and lift arms, or altering the direction a core fixture faced. The immediate result was a 50% decrease in ergonomics-related injuries with even further reductions forthcoming in anticipation of OSHA's ergonomics standard.

The last example is a 50-employee green sand shop that understands its greatest resource is its workers. In the late '80s, this foundry's owners instituted profit sharing with its workers. Although this is a mostly unheard-of practice in the foundry industry, the result has been a 100% increase in sales over the last 9 years (without major increases in capacity). In another decision, the foundry's owners had its workers design their new greenfield from top to bottom because, "they know our production and needs better than anyone." The result is production efficiency unlike any foundry of its size and capacity.

In the long run, these decisions may not work out for these foundries. It may turn out that adhering to tradition, taking the path of least resistance and doing what has always been done may have been safer in the short-run. But I am guessing that they wouldn't be as happy with the results-which would be what they always have been-because they were striving for something better to ensure a longer-term future.

For the industry to thrive in the 2 century, it is going to take new ideas and "new" tradition. In many cases, doing things the way they have always been done will make you noncompetitive when confronted by increasing offshore competition, EPA, OSHA and competing manufacturing methods.

Thinking "outside the box" has become a catchphrase for 21st century management, but it means taking a look at things from a different perspective and coming up with new ideas. I salute those foundries that have begun thinking "outside the box" to solve their problems and enhance their operations. Yours are the first steps toward reshaping the metalcasting industry of the future.

Alfred T. Spada

Managing Editor