New Foundry: A Big Undertaking and an Even Bigger Success
The foundry features a state-of-the-art shake-out and reclamation system, which holds flasks up to 20 feet by 20 feet; its dust collector extraction rate is 95,000 cubic feet per hour, and its shake-out throughput is 60 U.S. tons per hour.
As you already know, the new foundry is officially up and running! It’s because of all of the hard work and dedication from the entire staff that we can deem this project a complete success. However, I think we can all agree it didn’t happen overnight. In fact, the new foundry project has been nearly nine years in the making.
A remarkable feat
We started planning around 2006 and decided on a contractor in 2013. Since that time, we’ve moved 150,000 cubic yards of dirt, poured enough concrete to make a sidewalk 30 miles long, and brought in 600 tons of rebar.
As you can imagine, with that much material and such heavy construction, we’ve had our fair share of challenges. Through it all, management team members remained committed and the contractor did a great job of getting everything in on time.
Brian Prochaska, certified professional engineer and GIW Chief Engineer, strikes a pose.
We successfully completed the foundry in 2015 and opened it for production on May 2, 2016. Incredibly, everything was completed on time and on budget.
As remarkable as this feat is on its own, it’s even more impressive when you consider it wasn’t the only huge project happening at GIW at the time. While we were constructing the new foundry, we were also busy implementing SAP.
It took a lot of effort to split our attention between both initiatives, but with SAP and the new foundry being such integral parts of our operations, it was entirely worthwhile — especially now that we get to experience the benefits and improved efficiency that each provides.
Safer and easier
As of today, we’re in full production mode with the new equipment in the foundry. With that, there are expected challenges related to how everything runs on a day-to-day basis but we’re excited to report that things are going smoothly.
Klaus Barmann, KSB President of North America and Oceania Regions; Dennis Ziegler, former GIW President and CEO; and Dr. Peter Buthmann, KSB Board of Management, pause for a snapshot in front of a pump.
Much of this is because there has been a lot of thought and effort put into making this new facility as efficient as it can be. After years of finding work-arounds for molding, casting, and finishing massive castings in our other foundries, we finally have a space designed to hold the necessary equipment to handle these orders on time and with ease.
Overall, handling large castings in the new foundry is tremendously easier and safer. Where it used to take two cranes to move a mold, now we can use one. Before, it could take anywhere from eight to 24 hours to shake out a flask in the old foundry, and now we can shake it out in an hour. Even the special heat treatment is turning out to be a fantastic addition, especially for some of our hard-to-make alloys.
Ongoing success
Today and throughout the entire construction process, we’ve been impressed by everyone on the GIW team, particularly the hourly employees and mid-level supervisors. With recent economic fluctuations, GIW leaders have had to implement a variety of budget changes and cost-saving initiatives. Throughout all of that, there was still work to be done and everyone pitched in to help pick up the slack.
We have a huge appreciation for our hourly employees, and we’re proud to have you making the steps to establish a new work pattern in the foundry. The management team may set the expectations and objectives, but the workers are taking ownership of the process, working through obstacles, and dictating how they want the new foundry to be run.
Ready for growth
It’s this effort that’s making the new foundry, and GIW as a whole, successful. And we’re not the only ones who have noticed the unwavering dedication of GIW employees. Thanks to the work of our hourly employees and the direction of management team members, GIW has built an invaluable rapport with parent company KSB.
Having KSB leaders’ continued support and mutual respect adds to our sense of accomplishment. The new foundry demonstrated to them that we know how to plan, execute, and deliver even the largest and most complex projects — and even though we’re still working on maximizing the new foundry’s potential, we know they’ll be interested in investing in our growth in the future. And thanks to this huge and successful undertaking, we know we’ll be able to do it again!
Keith Milburn, Operations Plants Manager (Grovetown and Thomson),
and Rich Sterzen, Industrial Engineering Manager
