2015: A Year of Complexities and Accomplishments

2015 was an ambitions and demanding year for the entire GIW Industries Inc. team! We started the year with some of the biggest goals we’ve ever had, and most of them turned out to be just as tough — or even tougher — than we anticipated.

However, we’re proud of the ways in which everyone stepped up to these challenges and made GIW an even greater place to work. To recognize how far we’ve come, and to see the strides we’re continuing to make going into 2016 and beyond, we want to revisit our 2015 goals and share some of the outcomes.

1. and 2. Developing leadership and continuing to improve SAP

Although these started as two separate goals, they became intertwined as we began learning more about the ins and outs of Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing (SAP).

As many of you know, SAP is an unforgiving system. There’s no way to fix information and processes as you go; every project must be set up correctly from the start. To do this, you need input from a variety of departments across the entire company.

We weren’t aware of how independently different areas of GIW were operating until we began implementing SAP. Now we have to consider how even the smallest project will impact each department and the company as a whole.

Of course this is a big job, which is why we expanded our management team to include Craig Wieberdink, Director of Integrated Management. Wieberdink is continuing to help the leadership team and different departments work together more closely. With his help, we’ve made excellent strides in our integration efforts and we’ll continue to make more changes this year.

3. Empowering leaders on the shop floor

Last year, we worked hard to turn the traditional leadership structure on its head, and we’re excited to say that it’s been a success. With your support and participation, we’ve been able to empower you to make a difference in your work environment — without relying on committees and upper management to create change.

The feedback we’ve received has been wonderful. Through new policies and monthly four-hour training sessions, shop floor leaders have the opportunity to learn new ideas and expand their personal leadership skills.

Our goal with this inclusive style of management is to help everyone understand how he or she makes a difference. It’s your workplace, so your observations and opinions matter greatly. Embracing this mentality isn’t just improving the GIW of today, it’s also promising a brighter tomorrow. A “can-do” attitude combined with enhanced education opportunities will help you share your valuable leadership skills with new generations of GIW employees.

4. Finishing our foundry expansion

The new foundry opened its doors on Oct. 8, ahead of schedule and close to budget. Although we feel lucky to have this impressive project under our belts, luck had absolutely nothing to do with it. As McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc once said, “Luck is the dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” And our contractor and internal project management team put in a lot of sweat. They did an exceptional job on this complex, cutting-edge project, and we’re incredibly proud. We’re also looking forward to the next project — the distribution center — which is on track for an early completion as well.

5. Improving the quality of our outsourcing partners

GIW’s strength is in producing specialty white-iron products, but we also rely on a variety of secondary parts. Having a diverse and reliable supply network for these secondary parts helps us streamline our process, reduce expenses, and maintain focus on our core specialty. That’s why it’s so important to obtain secondary parts through a variety of efficient, high-quality outsource partners.

To help meet this goal, we hired a Supplier Quality Engineer, Catherine Nissen, earlier last year who is helping us connect with new partners in Mexico and China to ensure they’re meeting our rigorous standards. In fact, we’re sending three people to China this January to inspect their processes in person. Although this goal is always a work in progress, we’re making excellent strides and look forward to seeing direct improvements from our heightened focus on these outsourcing partner programs in the first quarter of 2016.

6. Making our pattern process more efficient

Unfortunately, this is the one goal we didn’t reach last year. Our pattern process is what enables us to produce custom solutions for clients. This service allows us to go beyond the products we produce regularly and respond to a client’s specific need. Being able to do this well requires flexibility and speed, and, right now, pinpointing exact timelines for completion of custom projects is complicated.

Last year, our goal to improve our pattern process fell by the wayside because of other large projects; we simply couldn’t free up the resources necessary to give this area the attention it deserves. However, this goal is tremendously important, which is why it’s still a top priority for this year. We want to be able to set reasonable expectations for our production teams as well as our clients, so we’re carrying our focus on making this process more reliable into 2016.

7. Meeting operations goals

In 2015, we focused on improving a single, central part of operations: our purchasing process. This is a strategic place to save money and make our entire production process more reliable. When we know what we’re getting and when, we can make more informed business decisions down the rest of the line, from production all the way to delivery.

However, making successful improvements means communicating purchasing information with all areas of the company. SAP is helping us make this happen. We still have work to do, but we’re very close to making this goal a reality. As we continue to integrate SAP and make our process more transparent, purchasing and all of our operations will continue to improve.

Coming full circle

As these goals and our continuing adaptation to SAP show us, integrating and becoming a more close-knit company involves a culture change. This is never easy, but we saw incredible gains last year and only expect to improve.

We’re proud and appreciative of everyone’s commitment to these big-picture goals in addition to the day-to-day operations that are the foundation of our success. Last year, we clearly earned our dollars through hard work! We expect this year to be equally strenuous as the commodities market remains soft, but we’re also certain it will be just as rewarding.

We’ve wrapped up another great year, and as we’re planning for 2016, we want to extend a heartfelt thanks to you for your dedication. Every company has important processes and tools they rely on, but the true value of GIW is in our people. We couldn’t do what we do without you, and we’re incredibly grateful.

We hope you’ve enjoyed your holidays and have come back renewed and recharged for a very exciting 2016!

Thomas H. Mueller
P.E. Vice President of Operations