The struggling economy has made most companies and families tighten the screws of spending and involvement in profit and non for profit organizations, with that being said this should be a best practice that is always followed in any kind of economy as a fiduciary responsible party of that particular family or company. I can say that I have not really given this any thought before the last qtr of 2009. Most companies join their industry associations and probably another half dozen or so. Why does one do this? Does it make the company feel better? Is money no issue? Because they asked? You love acronyms? What ever the reason for joining these associations, I bet you can find waste. I have lately made a list of all the associations we belong too and five bullet points under each association. If I cannot list five significant benefits that we are receiving from that association, then our membership must be evaluated and dealt with.
Posts Tagged ‘Bremen Machining’
Association Junkies
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Happy Anniversary, Mr. President
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009Bremen Castings is very fortunate to have a forward thinking President focused on technological advances that will cement a strong future for our organization. Today, JB Brown celebrates 16-years with Bremen Castings. From the days of running the Cupola to becoming President in January 2005, has been a journey of change that many of us have been able to witness all or part of that journey. Congratulations JB Brown, President of Bremen Castings!
Carol Senour
Committed to Safety
Friday, December 18th, 2009Bremen Castings reaches new milestone today with 100% of all management personnel trained in CPR, First Aid and AED. That is 43 employees trained and prepared to respond in emergency situations. Those situations exist whether we are at work, home or out in the community. We are proud of our employees; the time it took to get trained (8-hours) and pass the exam. Bremen Castings is committed to safety, so this was a great milestone to reach.
Carol Senour
Notre Dame Fires Charlie Weis
Monday, November 30th, 2009
Today was the end of Charlie Weis’s five year tenure at ND. With a 35-27 win loss record, and ending this year at 6-6, the stock holders at ND are less than pleased. Athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced the decision, saying in a news release: “We have great expectations for our football program, and we have not been able to meet those expectations.” Charlies is gone.
Those close to me all know that I am not a fan of Notre Dame (personal reasons) but I am a huge fan of sports and more importantly a huge fan of success and the fact that “Status Quo Sucks”. I have been listening to the fans, friends, co-workers, family and all others say: “Charlie needs to go!” Now that being said I respect ND as a business machine and a lot can be learned from ND as a business model. ND will need to belly up 15 – 20 mil to buy out CW’s contract than somewhere around another 5 mil for a new coach. Do you think the amount of money even comes into play? No amount of money will keep ND from making the correct decision. Summarizing the AD, they have expectations and it ain’t losing!
This brings me to another point. All sports teams are ran like a business: high school, NCAA and the pro’s. You can try to argue that they are not, but they are out there to win and be successful just like business. When there is a losing season or seasons the fans want the coach and/or coaches replaced. You never hear”Awwww, how can they fire him”, or “he has been with the team for years, how can they do that?” It’s always good riddance, bring on the next coach. Such the opposite in most work places. It’s kinda funny how one’s desire for a sports team to be successful vs the desire of the companies success. Just sayin.
Happy Thanksgiving
Thursday, November 26th, 2009Bremen Castings pours out well wishes and blessings to our BCI family and friends on Thanksgiving Day. As a tough economic year 2009 comes towards an end; we will be thankful today for all of you that helped us grow and remain strong during times like these. Families grow stronger weathering storms together and working together as a team. Today focus on all the things that you have to be thankful for; write them down and as the length of the list grows may you realize just how fortunate you are today and every day.
Carol Senour
Customer Service Rebound
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009The demise of customer service in America seemed to come about through a gradual decline over the last decade. Today, with the current economic climate, we are seeing significant improvements in our treatment as consumers. In the past, we were consuming in large amounts regardless of how we were treated as the customer. Contrast that with the current climate, where we have all reeled our consuming in favor of more saving and you see the decline in demand has dictated better customer service.
Consumers today are diverting their reduced dollars to those providing the best customer service. We have grown intolerant of poor customer service or have we always been intolerant? I would argue that we have always been intolerant and that we did not demand good customer service. We received exactly what we demanded, nothing more and nothing less. Today, we are demanding more and we are getting it or moving to where we receive better customer service. If consumers are smart enough to learn from the past, then we need to continue to demand good customer service even when we return to a new level of normalcy in the economy.
1/2 Empty or Full?
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009Over the years all these books, consultants, papers, teachers, parents, co-workers and everyone around us has heard and understands this over rated term. It’s the feel good attitude to look at everything as your glass is half full. What does that mean? You are a positive person? You are an optimist? You fit in the norm of socety and say the things that make you look smart or educated? I say you are lazy and dependant on others. It’s ok to look at the world as 1/2 full if you like comfort and Status Quo. I am not negative or a pessimist but for me, co-workers, sports teams, companies, lawyers, doctors and any other profession you can think of, works a hell of a lot harder, smarter and uses common sense when behind the eight ball or “The Glass is 1/2 Empty”. Think about it. The glass is at the same level whether it is 1/2 full or empty, correct? When it’s 1/2 full you are comfortable and you know that you have 1/2 left. When it’s 1/2 empty, you know you only have 1/2 left and you better fill the damn thing up before it goes dry. It’s all about the attitude.!
A New Begining
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
There is a new base line of business. Do not compare today’s level of production to yesterday, last month, last year or for most of the 90’s for that fact. Our world is in need of correction from all of the frivolous spending that has been taken place. Money is getting harder and harder to get and that’s the way it ought to be. There should be a certain criteria to borrowing and it should be enforced. Those of us with common sense all know that we should live with in your means and only splurge once in a while. The same goes for business. It has been easy to obtain money that everyone can not afford to pay back. A lot of Americans have large debt and no way to pay it back along with business’s. Since it is harder to borrow money it is only sensible that spending will go down and that also means the number of products that need to be produced will also go down. Some companies will make it and some wont. BCI is adjusting to today’s level because we believe these levels are here to stay for a while. If we use to make 100 pieces of a part we will now make 25 – 50 pieces. This can be compared across all manufacturing and housing for the most part. We don’t claim to know it all but we sure do have common sense. The worst thing that we see can happen to us is we are still in business and we are under prepared for higher levels and quantities of production. So if you ask me how is business and do I see things coming back soon my reply to you will be: “Business is great, we are still here after 70 years. we hope to grow over the next year or so due to new projects or others going out of business” We have a new base line and now we must climb the mountain again with in our means. SQS = Status Quo Sucks!
Shutdown Success!
Thursday, July 16th, 2009Every Independence day week BCI goes down for a minimum of a one week shutdown to get the operations ready for the next year of manufacturing. What was different this year was is that we took our 40 ton electric holding furnace down. This process is usually a five year PM. This PM is one of the most crucial and observed PM’s that BCI has. We were all very happy that shutdown came to get this holder of molten metal back in shape to handle the next five years of production. Darin Spearman (Dir of Plant Engineering & Maintenance), Brad Harris (Foundry Manager), and George Walter (Melt Supervisor) headed up this project with their crews internal and external. These gentleman took their years of experience and applied it to a perfect execution of how a project is planned and executed by the day. Great job guys! Other major projects also included the replacement of our Hartley Compatibility Controller by Simpson Group http://www.simpsongroup.com/ with a one of a kind protective cage manufactured by Warsaw Engineering & Fabricating, Inc http://www.warsaweng.com/ (WeFab). There were many other projects that were planned and executed by our maintenance department (led by Mike Hardman) & WeFab that pertained to structure and equipment that most of you would not care about but essential to continue to be one of the leaders in the manufacturing of machined complete gray & ductile iron castings that are used all over this great earth. Great job to everyone involved both internal and contracted.
Tier 2, 3 & 4 Suppliers to the Auto Industry
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009Well GM is going to restructure and get even more tax money from the US government and Canada. Guess what? They don’t have to pay it back either. Where in the hell is the accountability? The media has been covering this all week and interviewing car dealers and how they are losing out. First off, car dealers are being forced to close their doors, how does this help make more money for GM. The dealers buy their inventories from GM which includes cars and parts so GM got paid and the dealers are stuck. That just does not sound right. Second, where is the media to report on how GM is screwing all of their suppliers and their suppliers and their suppliers and so on. GM gets more money for running their business into the ground and ignoring the warnings over the years of their hideous spending and bullying of suppliers. As a result many great men and woman are going to loose their jobs and companies over the next few months. Just think about all the tooling shops that money is still owed to them or all the prototype companies that don’t get paid millions till the work has been approved. This really bites and I hope that the media will soon wake up and start reporting on all the different level of suppliers that this will effect. This is all very sad. I am asked daily what affect the GM bankruptcy has on BCI. My answer to everyone is not directly but it will affect everyone through out the world on some level. It raises our prices on some level to help recover the debit that GM is sticking to their suppliers. I would really like to see a stipulation of when GM receives more money from the governments that their suppliers should also get some of that pie too! Good luck to all.
Happy Mothers Day
Sunday, May 10th, 2009Today is mothers day across the free land of America. Today we celebrate all things mom. As everyone reflects back over the years to everything that our paternal and non paternal mothers have done for us kids and continue to do so. I am not one much for Hallmark holidays but I do respect and celebrate the “Mother” & “Father” day celebrations. Even though it is hard sometimes we all try to celebrate this day, everyday! Moms come in many packages but in the inside they all look the same, one gigantic heart and soul. The heart and soul of moms is the base station in this real life game of “tag”. It is our nature as kids to always think of a mom in a difficult time or a happy time. Moms have huge shoulders to help deal with all situations and emotions of all us kids from young to old, as I am told, we will always be kids. So thank you to all moms out there for being our psychologist, nurse, friend, enforcer, chef, teacher, nurturer, taxi, pillow, story teller, but most of all my mom. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM!!!!
Happy New Year, BCI!
Monday, May 4th, 2009Today is a new start of the year for BCI. BCI total sales grew by double digits last year to make 2009 the largest sales year since founded in 1939. BCI had many great accomplishments this year. First off, BCI celebrated it’s 70th birthday on March 17th with a party for all. In January we launched our new tooling shop that will help produce tooling for the foundry and machine shop in a timely manner and on-site with total accountability to be with BCI. The tooling shop has already produced a number of patterns and fixtures for the corporation. BCI even did it’s first prototype turn around from pattern to casting to customer in four days. Great job all. BCI has invested heavily into the operations infrastructure this last year to improve our up-time. Like many of the parts that BCI produces, monies are put forth to hidden areas to make a well run operational company. By investing in our plant infrastructure BCI is on the rise to be a standout in the manufacturing world not just the foundry industry. Also in our infrastructure was our latest update for Meltlab and GSPC Windows version by Meltlab Systems. This is all of our data collection for the shop and analysis. Last but not least the company went live with B & L Information Systems (Odyssey) to be BCI’s corporate software in February. As everyone knows there are great challenges to implementing new software. The internal B & L team was well prepared and did a great job! Team BCI is once again reminded that SQS (Status Quo Sucks) has made this company successful and will be instrumental in sustaining our growth year after year. There has been many other accomplishments that were also achieved and they were also celebrated. Team BCI is very excited for this year to start so we may continue our growth to be a world class manufacturer.