By Shannon Wetzel, Senior Editor

Downloadable PDF

To view a slideshow of Goldens' photos, click here.

The casting facility in Cordele, Ga., was just sitting there, quiet and empty. Production at what was once a dedicated automotive supplier had been abandoned for more than two years, waiting for some other owner with some other plan to make it work.

Ninety-five miles away, George Boyd Sr., president and CEO of Goldens’ Foundry and Machine Co., Columbus, Ga., sat (along with his sons and brothers, also in management with the iron casting company), dreaming of continuing a streak of modernization. They had replaced eight manual molding machines with an automatic cope and drag line for the company’s 100-600-lb. castings in 2001, and next on the list was updating operations for castings weighing 150 lbs. or less.

The Boyds were wrestling with modernizing the line within the existing 100-year-old building, all the while, they knew what was happening to the facility in Cordele as it failed. They knew when production stopped, and they knew when it was up for sale.

In 2006, Goldens’ took a chance and made an offer because they knew they could make the facility work where previous ownership failed. By May 2007, Goldens’ had re-equipped the facility to match its casting needs, and the plant was in production.

The new facility doubled Goldens’ capacity and made the company competitive for both small and large iron castings. With the new plant, business improved 50% in 2008 with sales projected to grow 50% from $24 million with one facility the previous year to $35 million with two.

Not the A&P

Goldens’ produces castings for the construction, mechanical power transmissions, oil and heavy truck industries. An investment in the ‘80s on its machining capabilities helped it become a single-source supplier for its customers. In the late ‘90s the iron caster made a fundamental shift in production as it became harder to compete in price and lead time against other companies that were specializing in niche markets.

In order to open up more opportunities, Goldens’ had to figure out how to increase its production and decrease its labor. In doing so, George Boyd said they could no longer be the A&P supermarket of castings.

“We were not able to produce the right quantity at the price point required,” he said. “The idea was to make a capital investment to improve our competitiveness and open up some opportunities.”

Company management decided it needed to automate the production of its large castings in order to produce the demanded volumes at the right price. In doing so, Goldens’ eliminated extremely large castings from its repertoire, thereby narrowing its focus to gray and ductile iron parts between 5 and 600 lbs. In 2001, the company replaced its manual jolt and roll-over machines with a Heinrich Wagner Sinto 48 x 48-in. automatic cope and drag line. Now the company is able to compete for jobs in pump housings, construction and agriculture that they couldn’t before because of the volumes required. 

“We went from 1950s machinery to state-of-the-art equipment in one step,” Boyd said. “It was a complete success. Even on the heels of 9/11, with a drop in volume, it was worth the investment.”

The new line, which produces 20-plus molds per hour, increased throughput  more than threefold and substantially lowered the variable cost per mold. It shifted the facility from a low-volume shop to a medium volume producer of large castings.

“We tripled our capacity while reducing our costs,” Boyd said.

That same year, Goldens’ reinitiated investment in its machining capabilities, bringing the total number of CNC machines in-house to 35. More than half of the castings made at Goldens’ are machined there.