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 ‘Manufacturing’
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
Play Nice in the Sand Box
Monday, December 14th, 2009Among difficult employees, those who will not let others play in their sand box are the worst. They have a perception that they know it all, they are ultimately accountable and no one has a right to question what they are doing or suggest another way of doing it. This mentality is detrimental to the team dynamics and overall health of the organization.
The more questions that are raised, the better your chances for significant improvements. In this new era of extreme competition, significant improves keep you in the game and advancing above the competition. Those from other disciplines do not have tunnel vision about how it has to be, so they offer better insight and creativity into the equation.
Play nice in the sand box; allow others into the sand box and your organization’s sand box will expand.
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.
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!
Have You Had Enough??
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009Have you people had enough of this Barry O guy and his czars followed by our employees (Congress & Senate)? You all say you are tired of this but what are you doing about it. If you really feel that way and you do not want to loose your freedom, YES, I said loose your freedom, then start doing something about it. Start emailing and calling your State and Federal elected officials and tell them to wake the hell up! Stop trying to pass new laws and policies and increase taxes. Why don’t you (the policy maker) watch your frivolous spending and tighten up. Duhhhh, whats that, common sense???? Next! Mr. Congressman, Mr. Senator please stop wasting money and start telling the truth and represent the people that got you elected. You are squeezing our freedom right out of this country. This is not a white, black issue or a republican democrat thing either. This is about you and your fellow elected officials doing what is right for WE THE PEOPLE! This country was defined and once ruled by WE THE PEOPLE and we want it back! If you are unable or to lazy to google who to call then I can help lol http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
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.
Memorial Day = FREEEEEEEEDOM!
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009Every year we all write about this so special day to help remind others how important this day is. Memorial day is a National holiday to remember, honor, and celebrate the lives of those who gave and sacrificed their blood for our freedom. It seems to me that more U.S. citizens celebrate Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick’s day or what ever holiday it may be, sad but true, but the fact of the reality is that these holidays would not be celebrated so widely if it were not for our freedom. Our freedom came at the ultimate price, life. The blood from the men and woman that spreads across this world from Bunker Hill to Afghanistan over the years has enabled all of us to enjoy the daily freedoms that we have inherited from the men and woman who have and still serve our country. This holiday weekend should not be taken lightly, please thank a vet and remember those who have served this country and never made it home to enjoy the freedoms that you and I enjoy today and many take for granted.
Please take the time to educate a younger American(or adult if needed) on why we celebrate this day and what this day means to us as Americans. Do not rely on the school systems to properly teach our children what Memorial day is all about. As sad as it is, their are actual schools in the USA who will be in class on Monday. Please take the time to educate and give the soldiers of our armed forces the respect that they deserve by observing this National holiday.
Investing in OUR Future
Monday, April 27th, 2009Today (04/27/09) BCI had a new team member start. This gentlemen has just graduated from college and was in need of a job. Did BCI need to hire him? No. Should we have hired him considering the world economy and the decline of manufacturing? Maybe maybe not. So why did we? As a corporate structure in this free world, BCI recognizes our responsibility not only to ourselves but to our community & our industry. It takes years of work experience and daily communications to gain the experience of a well informed and educated team member in our industry. There is no text book to teach all of the different situations that an individual will encounter. We also understand that these newly graduated students will probably not stay at BCI forever according to statistics. If we do not hire these individuals in bad times or economic recession they will change their focus to another industry and so will the future graduates. BCI is proud to say that we are living up to our responsibility to do our part to help promote and train our industries future. Even though it’s only one, it is better than none. Please help promote our industry and adopt a graduate!
Please note that if your company is in need of a college graduate or looking for next year please visit www.fefinc.org