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Grede recently participated in the New Castle-Henry County Chamber of Commerce and Eastern Indiana Works' Career Day, an event designed to connect students with industry leaders and top employers in the community. 🏫👨🎓 Grede New Castle demonstrated Foundry in a Box to local high schoolers, where they made their own Grede keychains. 🔑 It was a fantastic day dedicated to engaging more than six local high schools about the foundry industry’s vital role in society. 🧑🏭
We’re delighted to share that PACCAR Parts has again recognized Grede with the 10PPM Quality Award! 🏆🎉 Grede Reedsburg in Wisconsin received this award for constantly producing high-quality parts for PACCAR in 2024. For every million pieces made at our flagship foundry in Reedsburg, ten or fewer had quality issues. Congratulations to Grede Reedsburg for this impressive achievement. It’s a great example of our dedication to quality and operational excellence. Thank you, PACCAR, for your business and for trusting us to produce safety-critical castings for your commercial vehicles.
Congratulations to Chief Administrative Officer Matt Hladki for joining the Board of Directors for the Foundry Educational Foundation. In the photo, Matt is shaking hands with FEF Board President Jason Gutierrez from Soundcast during the FEF Board Meeting at Purdue University. Matt will serve on the board for three years and is also now part of the FEF Board’s alumni ambassador and communications committee. We also want to thank VP of Operational Excellence, Michael Meyer, for serving on the FEF Board for many years as he transitions out of this role. FEF’s mission is to strengthen the metalcasting industry by supporting unique partnerships among students, educators, and industry, helping today's students become tomorrow's leaders. Matt is passionate about early career talent development, which is clear with the implementation of our Grow with Grede program in the last two years. We’re delighted that Matt will take a leadership role in this wonderful organization.
Last week, we celebrated Skilled Trades Day. 🔦🎉🎒 All of our foundries celebrated our skilled trades workers on May 7 and thanked them for everything they do to keep our equipment running. Without them, we can't run an efficient foundry operation. Here are photos from some of our celebrations in Browntown, Wisconsin; Biscoe, North Carolina; New Castle, Indiana; and St. Cloud, Minnesota. In addition to thanking them for everything they do, we gave out lunch bags, flashlights, backpacks, candy bars, cookies, etc., as a small token of our appreciation. Foundries are extremely dependent on every piece of equipment for a smooth foundry operation as a whole. It's critical that we retain our skilled trades workers and attract more candidates. We have several open positions in skilled trades. Apply today at www.grede.com/careers.
Congratulations to our foundry in St. Cloud for achieving the Minnesota Governor’s Workplace Safety Award for the fourth consecutive year! 🏆✨ Grede was recognized with the Gold Achievement Award for 2024 from the Minnesota Safety Council. We received this award for achieving an incidence rate better than the 75th percentile of both the state and national average for the manufacturing industry. Last week, Sr. Safety Manager Mark Schulman accepted the award at the annual Minnesota Safety & Health Conference.
Keeping all foundry equipment running smoothly is critical to our efficiency. Without it, operations would come to a halt. Our skilled trades workers are the backbone of this effort, ensuring everything runs seamlessly. 💪 However, filling these essential positions can be challenging. Today, on Skilled Trades Day, we want to extend our gratitude to all the technicians, electricians, and skilled trades workers at Grede for everything they do to keep our equipment running. We're hiring several skilled trade positions! If you’re interested in joining our team, visit www.grede.com/careers.
We recently had the pleasure of hosting engineering students from the University of Wisconsin-Stout at our foundry in St. Cloud, Minnesota! They toured the facility and learned about our innovations, technology, and career opportunities. We're happy to provide hands-on experiences and learning opportunities to future engineers in our local communities. 🚀
Susan Bear, Our Chief Technology Officer, was recognized with SME’s Albert M. Sargent Progress Award at the SME’s International Awards Gala in Detroit. This award is one of SME’s seven International Honor Awards and recognizes significant accomplishments in manufacturing processes, methods, and systems. SME, also known as the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, is a nonprofit dedicated to adopting manufacturing technologies and building North America's talent and capabilities in manufacturing and engineering. Susan Bear is responsible for leading engineering, quality, program management, and IT functions at Grede. She achieved this award for driving Industry 4.0 initiatives to optimize business and operational performance. Grede is journeying through AI and creating a smart foundry, similar to a smart home. Susan has been instrumental in enabling Grede to move from the art of foundry to the science of metalcasting™. Grede has already seen a 30% improvement in the cost of returns and a 10% improvement in scrap after implementing our Industry 4.0 strategy and IoT solution, Monitizer. We’re lucky to have Susan leading this vital initiative, and we can’t wait to see where it takes us later this year as we roll out the next phase of Industry 4.0, which focuses on the AI piece for sand through Norican Group’s Monitizer | Prescribe technology.
In April, we implemented an 8D Problem Solving Training for over 80 team members, enabling growth for our team and casting excellence for our customers. 🔍🧩 The 8D problem-solving method is a structured, team-based approach to solving problems in manufacturing and quality management. It involves eight disciplines to identify root causes, implement corrective actions, and prevent recurrence. One of the top opportunities identified in our last employee engagement survey was the need for more training and growth opportunities. To address this feedback and improve the quality of our castings, we implemented the 8D training to develop our workforce and support continuous improvement. This eight-hour training was offered to every department, including quality, engineering, maintenance, and more, across Grede’s 10 plants. The virtual training was divided into two webinars, facilitated and administered by Tommy Moore from Key Performance Consulting, and Grede team members, Training Coordinator Jeff Rasmusson, and Quality Director Marc Gattoni. “It’s not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best.” ~W. Edwards Deming. By investing in our team's skills and knowledge, we’re enabling innovation and commercial excellence. #GrowWithGrede
Did you know that Grede is a military-friendly employer? At Grede, we actively recruit military veterans to join our team. Their values of discipline and commitment seamlessly integrate into our work environment. In honor of Military Appreciation Month, we’re spotlighting Mario Ortega – a past Lieutenant Colonel of the Marine Corps with 30 years of military service. Straight out of the military, he joined Grede, where he quickly got promoted from Maintenance Planner to Maintenance Supervisor at our Liberty foundry in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. In this video, he talks about embracing conflict, the three pillars of the Marine Corps—honor, courage, and commitment— and why he likes working at Grede. Watch the video to learn more about Mario's journey and how Grede supports our veterans. ⭐
