Regional Speakers Focus on Core Outsourcing, Employee Training.

The 63rd Annual Wisconsin Regional Foundry Conference and Mini-Exposition, held on February 10-11, attracted 850 attendees to the host city of Milwaukee. The conference treated attendees to 30 presentations by 44 speakers, and 78 foundry suppliers exhibited their products and services.

Presented by the AFS Wisconsin Chapter in cooperation with the AFS Stateline and Northeast Wisconsin Chapters, and the Univ. of Wisconsin, the conference featured a keynote address by AFS President Jack Pohlman, Taylor-Pohlman, Inc., and a speech by Wayne Larrivee, the "Voice of the Green Bay Packers."

Conference presentations focused on the theme "Communication--The Key to Promoting Education & Participation," discussing promotion of the foundry industry to students, strategies to recruit and retain good employees, the creation of motivational environments, group problem-solving and employee training. Technical and management topics also were presented, including OSHA's proposed permissible exposure limit, the development cycle of compacted graphite iron, core outsourcing, optimizing the tundish ladle treatment process, nonferrous casting defects and foundry ventilation.

Core Outsourcing

In a panel featuring representatives from a sand core supplier and both a small and large foundry, the pros and cons of outsourcing cores were analyzed.

According to Warren Grossman, president, Supreme Cores, the number of core suppliers has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, but there are still less than 10 "true" core shops providing full-service sand cores to the foundry industry. Foundries that outsource cores have the advantage of working with suppliers that have the option to run several different processes, he said.

Regs Scheeler, foundry manager, Accurate Specialties, has realized the benefits of core outsourcing at his small foundry, particularly in the reduction of capital equipment. "Certain jobs that require special equipment may not fit your normal process, or you may use them only a few times a year," he said. "Also, if our equipment breaks down, we still have a source to get cores."

In addition to reducing costs in man-hours and overhead, outsourcing places the burden of finding skilled coremakers on the supplier, Grossman added. Other pros include:

* freeing up capital for other foundry needs;

* eliminating core scrap costs;

* increasing floor space for molding or storage;

* transfering environmental issues to the supplier.

According to Scheeler, some disadvantages of outsourcing cores include:

* rush orders are hard to work in;

* additional time may be needed for delivery;

* in-house schedules can be affected (type of alloy being poured, machine cell flow);

* possibility of late shipments affects customers' needs.

Foundry Employee Training

In his presentation on training foundry personnel, Daryl Hoyt, Foundry Sand Technology, began by stating, "If you think quality is free, you should investigate the return on investment provided by training."

Stressing that training is "not just for workers, but for management, too," Hoyt covered several strategies to help foundry employees learn to do their jobs more effectively. Some of these include:

* listen to your workers--When they comment on their problems, take the time to lend an ear and offer feedback;

* don't undervalue training--Education and training should exist as a budgeted item;

* keep it simple--Training can be limited to teaching a person to perform a function or understand the function. Tell him what your going to tell him and tell him what you told him;

* don't limit training to workers-Management must keep their finger on the pulse of the industry and be aware of the latest technology and government regulations;

* keep up with the times--Equipment and requirements are constantly changing. Training programs must be updated to meet the needs of the workers;

* plan your sessions--Don't use training to fill in a production gap;

* be creative--Try to involve the workers in the training program.