James E. Bushman: From Student to Teacher at Cast-Fab Technologies.

Entering new, unfamiliar ground can be perilous for any individual seeking to affect change. The shift can be even more daunting when said industry is suffering through hard times.

This very predicament confronted James Bushman, whose first real foundry experience came in his mid-40s with his 1988 purchase of a captive green sand and nobake foundry and sheet metal fabricator. Today, it is known as Cast-Fab Technologies, Inc.

Armed with planning, organizational and motivational skills, Bushman overcame the obstacles of learning an unfamiliar industry and, in doing so, was able to facilitate the company's transition from a captive shop into a player in the jobbing metalcasting field.

Making the Change

After 17 years at Arthur Andersen & Co. and 6 years as president of Carlisle Crane & Excavation, Inc., a construction equipment rental and contracting business, he came across the opportunity to purchase Cincinnati Milacron's Metal Fabricating Div., Cincinnati. The division's business, which featured captive metalcasting, heavy fabrication and sheet metal guarding and cabinet manufacturing, had declined to the point where it was using only part of its available capacity.

In his evaluation of the offer, Bushman had to consider that the foundry industry was going through some tough times. From 1980-1988, it was reported that the number of U.S. foundries had declined from 4200 to 3200. Foreign competition, particularly from the Japanese, was becoming more intense as exchange rates provided a competitive advantage to imports. Also, new OSHA and EPA regulations compounded the economic difficulties of many foundries.

With the help of a partner, Bushman spent 6 months reviewing the opportunity. He hired a consulting firm with foundry experience to conduct a market analysis of the business and match up opportunities with the facility's process capabilities. His conclusion was that Milacron's operations had a future in its unique niche--supporting the capital goods industry and users of large castings. Many peers credited his decision to buy the operation to having great vision, while others said it was foolish. He quickly proved the latter wrong.

Bushman's purchase came at a time when heavy-section ductile iron was emerging in the U.S. Milacron was redesigning its plastic injection molding machines away from steel to ductile iron. "There weren't many foundries producing high-quality, heavy section ductile iron at the time," said Bushman. "As a consequence, the larger castings were coming out of Germany."

With heavy-section ductile iron an already-functioning segment for Milacron and a perfect fit for the operation's production capabilities, Cast-Fab management visited some of the German foundries and met with technical experts in Europe to gain a better understanding of the quality of heavy-section ductile iron and process control issues.

As a result of Bushman's purchase, Cast-Fab was able to secure a multi-year supply agreement with Milacron which provided him a "little bit of a breather" to learn the business. In addition, on the day following Bushman's purchase, a Japanese firm that had acquired a U.S. machine tool maker placed an order with Cast-Fab.

To help ease himself into the foundry industry, Bushman took advantage of the expertise of Milacron's management and operators, who stayed with the company after his acquisition. "I spent a lot of time in the shop...listening," said Bushman. He also read a lot about the industry, while visiting as many shops as possible.

Focusing on the Customer

Since beginning with one customer at Cast-Fab, Bushman has worked hard at achieving a mix of customers and industries so that successes or failures of any one wouldn't overrun the business. Today, the foundry has no customer that represents more than 30% of its business.

According to Bushman, since 1988, Cast-Fab's biggest change has been its focus on customers and their needs. This focus is accentuated by his heavy investment in a quality reporting system, which tracks, reports and shares all calls received and made as well as visits with customers regarding specific casting issues. "The system may, sometimes, focus on the negative, but it also focuses on the solution," said Bushman. "We've gotten some dramatic results on quality, and I credit a lot of it to the system."

Cast-Fab personnel also participate in "Voice into Choices," a 20-step process developed by the Center for Quality of Management, Cambridge, Massachusetts, which helps companies ground their actions using their customers' perspectives. It provides Cast-Fab with the confidence that future business decisions are customer-driven and not influenced by personal or organizational biases.

With both a casting and fabrication operation, Bushman has the advantage of being able to show customers more than one option for their component. "When a customer comes to us with a prototype for a fabrication, we can show them how much it would cost them to convert that part to a casting," said Bushman. "The main difference between the two is based upon the number of parts the customer wants. The production numbers must justify the cost of the tooling."

Setting Quality Standards

In addition to a stronger customer focus since his arrival, Bushman also has carried out a strategic plan for maintaining quality. "We have had a much greater focus on doing it right the first time," he said, "and enabling people on the floor to do that."

The foundry also is leveraging its capacity more effectively, according to Bushman. "Today, we're selling castings for less and turning inventory six times faster than we did in 1988," he said. "There's a lot more value in these castings. New designs have reduced weight while still meeting the structural integrity and maximizing the mechanical properties."

A quality standard that Bushman follows is "fitness to the latent requirement," or building an organization that is so in tune with the needs of the customer that it can deliver the needs before the customer asks for them. "They're unspoken needs and rules," he added.

Empowering His People

When taking the reins at Cast-Fab, Bushman brought honed motivational skills that he was confident could bring positive results regardless of the industry to which they were applied. Upon his arrival, he was met by a group of skeptical employees who had suffered through several downsizings, according to "Empower the People," a June 1998 Industry Week article that profiled his firm.

Bushman's goal was for everybody to understand the direction the company was headed. "I believe in treating people with respect and integrity," he said. "I wanted to stress the importance of every person in the organization and that everyone can contribute. I also wanted to make sure that everybody understands the customers' expectations. Motivation, empowerment and customer focus are my watch words."

One of Bushman's biggest tasks was getting Cast-Fab's managers on the same page. Instead of being directive toward the work force, I wanted them to become motivators, facilitators and enablers," he said. "Instead of telling people what to do, when to do it and where to do it, they would be facilitating and motivating."

To keep workers informed of CastFab's customer issues, Bushman holds frequent employee meetings. "Employees are anxious to know who the new customers are and what we're working on with them," he said.

He also spends a lot of time on the shop floor, getting to know the employees. "We do a lot of things with the shop floor workers," said Bushman. "I have lunch with a random group and solicit their thoughts on teamwork, communication and share what's going on with the company." He also holds quarterly meetings, at which he recognizes workers for their ideas and contributions, a service award banquet and a perfect attendance banquet. "More than 20% of our employees did not miss a single day of work last year," he added.

Bushman has taught workers to be goal-oriented. "When people have goals, they tend to work toward them," he said. To set the company's goals each year, he uses Hoshin planning, in which progress is monitored against the goals set, and the shortfalls are identified. Problem-solving techniques to get back on target in the simplest way also are used.

"Each manager has personal goals that they must achieve," added Bushman. "Our incentive program is tied not only to the success of the company in terms of the profits, but we have them tied to the achievements of the personal goals of individuals as well."

Another facet of Bushman's empowerment effort is training. Since coming on board, he has offered programs in areas such as leadership, total quality management, diversity, safety, problem-solving and courses to improve technical skills.

To move his strategy onto the shop floor, Bushman organized the work force around specific products rather than specific job responsibilities. For instance, instead of engineers working in one room and welders in another, all employees responsible for the production of a particular product work together on the shop floor. According to Bushman, by reorganizing the company into natural work teams and physically putting them together, there is much more interchange. Also, since management has been taken out of the process, problems are solved much more quickly.

Changing Faces 

A lot of positive changes have occurred for Bushman, Cast-Fab and the foundry industry since his acquisition 12 years ago. "Clearly, there is a renewed enthusiasm about our industry's future, said Bushman, who has seen his company double its production and sales since his arrival.

For Bushman, the foundry industry definitely has gotten into his blood. "I have fallen in love with the industry and the art form that it represents," he said. "I am amazed at times when everybody describes what they do here. They all come in here every day, and they all perform a different role. It's magical to watch these castings take shape."

James E. Bushman

President & CEO, Cast-Fab Technologies, Inc.

Age: 55.

Education/Degree: BBA in accounting, Univ. of Cincinnati.

Immediate Family: Wife-Barbara; Sons-Ross and Lee.

Professional Assns.: AFS National Board of Directors Foundry Educational Foundation, Ductile Iron Society and International Casting Research Institute.

Company information

Founded: 1988.

Metals Cast: Gray and ductile iron.

Mold Capabilities: Green sand and nobake (horizontally parted); jolt squeezer.

Core Capabilities: Nobake, coldbox and shell.

Melting Capabilities: Coreless induction.

Value-Added Capabilities: Painting, machining and assembly.

Size: 400,000 sq ft (34,000 for foundry).

Markets: Plasti industry, machine tools, air conditioning refrigeration construction machinery, mining and compressors.

2000 Shipments: 20,000 tons.

2000 Net Sales: $43 million (foundry and fabrication).

Employees: 360 (240 in foundry).