Idea Thieves
The reduction of scrap is one of three main focuses at BCI, according to Brown, along with safety and customer service. Last year, BCI added a customer service department that reports directly to sales. The department, which helps answer customer questions regarding purchase orders and shipping, was partly inspired by Brown’s experience with the customer service “genius bar” at Apple computer stores. He purposefully hired staff with customer service experience in an outside industry to bring new perspective on how to deal with customers.

“It’s important to look for ideas, opportunities and solutions from places outside of the metalcasting industry,” Brown said. “The best ideas are always stolen.”

BCI sends its employees to visit its customers to build face-to-face relationships but also to give them a glimpse of end-use manufacturing facilities in various industries. The goal is to bring the glossy look of a manufacturer to the green sand metalcasting facility in Bremen.

“When you’re walking through the plant, you should not step in sand, you should not get leaked on,” Brown said.

BCI is in the process of painting its interior walls white to give it a more manufacturing facility feel, but Brown admits it is a work in progress. The metalcasting facility still has some dirt on the machinery and floors, and certain areas, like the grinding department, would benefit from reorganization and ergonomic improvements.

To tackle the remaining facility and operations improvements, BCI created a lean manufacturing team, affectionately called SQS for “status quo sucks.” The team regularly creates a list of top 10 priorities for the company, based on the plant’s current condition. The priorities change periodically as conditions change. SQS issues can range from business philosophy to operations of the loading and unloading dock to how employees speak to customers.

“We ask, ‘what do we want to be doing today’ and ‘why are we not doing it?’” Brown said.