On February 10, AFS Corporate Member Waupaca Foundry announced the arrival of its new CEO, Mike Hawthorne. Although new to metalcasting, he brings over 30 years of manufacturing/industrial experience to the role, having most recently served as president, specialty manufacturing group, at JB Poindexter & Co., and previously was president and CEO of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, LLC, and president and CEO of New York Air Brake, LLC. He holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Clarkson University, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA from Syracuse University. 

At CastExpo in Atlanta, Modern Casting sat down with Hawthorne––just two months on the job––to explore his thoughts about the industry and plans for the company.

What felt right about seizing this opportunity with Waupaca Foundry?

The more I learned, the clearer it became that this is a very well-established company—a great brand with a very solid reputation, not just in its products, but the people. When I started to analyze it, I could see the opportunities were quite rich. It became less about metalcasting specifically, and more about the character of the company. There is opportunity to adopt some additional modern techniques, but I really respect everything that has been established.  It was everything I’d hoped to find when I considered seeking a new assignment and reinforces the fact that it was a great decision to join this company.

Have you encountered any surprises over the last five months? 

I understood that casting parts was melting metal and putting it into a shape––what I didn’t fully expect was the level of technology and science required to do it well. 

Waupaca has a really interesting mix of both modern manufacturing techniques and strategy to continue to grow and improve, but also a tremendous amount of “tribal knowledge,” with long-tenured people who understand the nuts and bolts of how you make a casting––it’s incredible. Not that this was a surprise––but the level of science, technology, and technique was much higher than I expected.

Let’s talk about safety––is there anything new or different you’ve identified for attention?

 The backdrop on this for me is, every manufacturing business I’ve been a part of has safety as a priority. Everyone believes it’s a priority. However, most companies talk more about it than they do about it. That’s unfortunate, but I think it’s a reality. 

Waupaca has a good safety program, but the numbers aren’t where they need to be. So, my challenge to the team has been, I want to cut our TRIR (total recordable incident rate) in half––twice in the next five years.  I’d like it to be zero, but we’re aiming for 25% five years from now. 

I believe you have to have some rather big, bold, breakthrough concepts because incremental changes don’t really get you where you need to go. You can have the best of intentions, but at some point, you can’t spend enough capital to make another meaningful change in the safety performance of the business. You have to move away from curtains and barriers to behavioral and culture change.

I’ll fully support if we want to take a capital plan and push it into the safety space. But what I believe we need more than that is a cultural change, so that we all understand—sincerely—that the most important thing we do every day is making sure everybody goes home in the same shape or better than when they arrived. 

And that means that you have to have the courage to say things like, “I won’t do this job because it’s not safe,” or “I’m going to pull the cord and we’re going to it shut down.” Not just empowering them, but making sure they understand it’s their responsibility. Nobody wants to get hurt, but when you get to the point where people understand it’s their responsibility, not just something we all hope for, I believe you can start to make effective change. I don’t think we can get where we need to be without having this cultural effect where it’s not just as a metric that hangs on a wall, but something that they’re personally responsible for.

What’s another high priority as you settle in at the helm?

Driving operational efficiency is at the top of the list. It’s not uncommon, but I practice lean. I’ve been exposed to it throughout my manufacturing career, and at some places, talking lean and walking lean are two different things. A lot of people know some of the terminology, but to really dive in and execute lean techniques is somewhat unusual.
Waupaca does excel at creating a great casting. Full stop. But there are steps that could be optimized or at least improved, and I find often that the best ideas about the way an operation can improve come from the people who are doing the work. So, an area that I want to focus on is going out to the floor and engaging the people. You can call it Kaizen event, or you can just call it fact-finding, but the idea is to get insight into the things that they would consider inefficient. And I’ll tell you, the vast majority of the time, that’s exactly where the inefficiencies are.

 Now, you have to sift through a lot of data, and you have to be able to prioritize, but I think coupling that lean technique with the expertise that already exists at Waupaca is going to create a lot of benefit and operational efficiency.

So, are you more of a Six Sigma or a Kaizen guy?

I’m a big fan of Kaizens. Again, I’ve seen two kinds––I’ve seen the Kaizens where you get the engineers––and I’m an engineer, so I can pick on them––and they come in and think they know all there is about a problem or a process. Or you do the Kaizen where you’re going to the workforce this time, and you just define the problem and put together what they see as the inefficiencies. You let the engineers contribute, because they have techniques, but you marry those two together. The best Kaizens I’ve seen are where you get this magic improvement where the team says, “We need to take six people out of this 25-person operation.” That’s a productivity gain. Our intent is not to just reduce heads. It’s to get efficiencies and extend the people into other parts of the business.

It’s still early days yet, what’s the pulse reading you’re getting from casting customers in various industries? What are they talking about? 

Those who I’ve had deeper conversations with agree there’s a lull in the demand for casting products at the moment, and that probably continues for another few quarters. There is a general consensus, and I tend to agree, that we’re kind of at the bottom and maybe even starting to tick up––and we’ve seen some demand indicators that this is happening. 

The questions they’re asking are telling of where they believe we are and how fast they believe we’re going to go back. “Do you have capacity?” “Are you prepared?” “What do tariffs mean for your supply chain?” “How well positioned are we?” “What does it mean for me as a customer and you as a supplier to be successful? 
I think the customer base is optimistic, but they’re still a little uncertain as to when  we’re going to see a return to a better market. 

How are you coming at the workforce crisis, which is likely to remain in America through most of our lifetimes?
The reindustrialization of the country is truly important for the health of the nation. I believe that we have done a disservice socially to generations of potential workers that have come through schools. A lot of people have aptitude toward something that is vocational, which has every bit as much skill and capability as somebody that goes to college. Society has done a disservice in trying to funnel everybody to four-year college. It creates both unhappiness and a lack of actual skilled workers. 

We pay well and I think you can have a good career with Waupaca––you can have a rewarding lifestyle, raise a family, and come out with a healthy retirement. I would like to see us as a society and as an industry promoting this even better.

The reindustrialization of the nation is going to hit a wall when it comes to trying to secure an adequate labor force. We as a society need to reconsider how we promote and allow upcoming generations to really pick what matches their skill set, matches their personality, and will be the most rewarding for them. And beyond that, I think we’re going to have to figure out how to get an immigration policy that is going to allow the workforce to grow.

They’re already starting to show, but what are your “superpowers” and how will they be on display at Waupaca?
What I consider to be my technique is asking questions. And there are two things that serve me well. First, I’ve got an analytical engineer’s mind, and when we’re trying to do something that I don’t understand, I start asking questions. And that helps me learn. 

But sometimes I’ll ask questions I already know the answer to. This allows people to get their own thoughts out into the conversation. When you ask a question, you have people starting to think and create ideas. You can almost step back and see the teams form either the solution or maybe a strategy. 

You want to guide it. But if I say it, then it’s my strategy. If I guide it and have everyone else come around it, then it’s our strategy, which is always much more powerful. 

I consider myself a servant leader––the best people I’ve ever worked for and with were not the ones trying to raise their own flag and take credit. They were the ones who were really trying to facilitate inside of whatever the problem was. They would stand in front of the whole team and take the bullets if that’s what was necessary, but they were really inclined toward helping the team be more than they would have been without this type of facilitation.