Congratulations to our first set of maintenance training program graduates! 🧑🔧🛠️🎓 These maintenance team members from St. Cloud, Minnesota, are now considered either Master Mechanics or Master Electricians by completing all five levels of the mechanic training or all six levels of the electrician training program. Graduates of the program not only received a wage increase for each level they passed, but they also received a new tool bag after completing the entire program. Our skilled trades team members are vital in keeping our equipment running and enabling operational excellence. The training structure—hosted in Casting College, Grede’s eLearning platform—was designed to expand their proficiency, increase their earnings, and attract and retain our maintenance technicians. Do you know someone looking for a rewarding maintenance career with plenty of growth opportunities? We're hiring maintenance technicians! Tell them to visit www.grede.com/careers to apply today.
Sustainability is in our roots – it isn't new to Grede. 🌱 Focusing on sustainability isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s good business. And in honor of Earth Day, we’re spotlighting one of our environmental sustainability projects involving beneficial reuse for spent foundry sand. ⏳ Last year, our foundry in St. Cloud, Minnesota, received approval from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Stearns County MN Government to reuse spent sand from our sand molds as fill for closing animal feed lot manure pits. Over 1,000 tons of sand were hauled to two farms in Stearns County, reducing both diesel fuel consumption and costs due to the shorter hauling distance. Grede St. Cloud is Minnesota's first foundry to implement this beneficial reuse of foundry waste. 🙌 An animal feedlot manure pit is a special storage area where animal manure is managed. It serves as a temporary holding area for manure before it’s treated and used. Grede has prioritized eco-friendly innovations like this one since day one. We’re proud of our creativity and imagination in reusing spent foundry sand, which has enabled us to reduce our environmental footprint and associated costs. 🪴💡
In anticipation of Earth Day, join us by making your energy choices count both at work and at home. 🌎🔋 Grede is a proud ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year. Using energy wisely is not only the right thing to do for our planet, but it makes a lot of "cents" as well. Visit energystar.gov/earthday to learn about everything you need to save energy, money, and the planet. #EnergyChoicesCount
Thank you to the American Foundry Society for hosting another fantastic CastExpo & Metalcasting Congress. Grede was the only company to win a safety award during CastExpo! CEO Cary Wood, along with Susan and Stephanie, accepted Grede Reedsburg’s Millionaires Safety Award. Our Reedsburg foundry received this award by achieving one million working hours without a lost-time incident in 2024! Sr. Manager of Communications & Branding and AFS Marketing Division Chair Stephanie Frazho co-presented a session with AFS Sr. Director of Communications & Marketing John Belmont on Safety as a Brand Attribute: Internal Buy-In and External Recognition for Your Foundry. Grede has won safety awards at AFS conferences for the last three years in a row. Grede CTO and AFS Board member Susan Bear co-presented with Derek Yesmunt from Norican Group on Journeying Through AI: Real-time Discoveries in Data Analytics with Industry 4.0. Sr. Product Engineer Patrick Kluesner also taught technical sessions about Metalcasting Basics and the 10-step Method to Corrective Action. Grede was a proud gold sponsor of the event, and we sponsored the Young Professionals reception on Monday night. Grede Grads also attended the conference and took advantage of the many technical and Young Professionals sessions. Grede Grads is our two-year rotational program for recent graduates and part of our early career talent development strategy, Grow with Grede. Thank you again to AFS for having us. See you next year!
Our CAO Matt Hladki recently spoke at SME’s Fusion Conference— focused on workforce development for the manufacturing industry. During the conference, Matt spoke on a panel with Becca O'Toole, Partnership Development Director for Ready to Hire—a global education company that builds talent pipelines for the most in-demand jobs, in a discussion led by Denise Cowburn, Senior Corporate Client Executive from SME’s Tooling U training program. Not only has Grede taken advantage of Tooling U-SME’s training programs for our maintenance team members, but we have also partnered with Ready to Hire to attract and retain maintenance technicians. By partnering with Ready to Hire, we’re counteracting the high turnover and vacancy rate for maintenance jobs. This selective training and recruitment system widens the initial talent pool by identifying exceptional candidates for a more successful retention rate. Grede is certainly leading the way in the manufacturing industry when it comes to employee recruitment and retention, training, and early career talent development strategies such as internships and post-graduate programs. We were happy to attend for the second year to connect and learn from our peers in the industry. Thank you, SME, for a great conference!
Congratulations to our EHS Flag recipients! 🎉🏆 During our annual Safety Summit in March, we award EHS flags annually to plants for exceeding their environmental, health, and safety goals. This year, eight flags were awarded compared to five last year. Congratulations to our gold flag winners – New Castle, Indiana; St. Cloud, Minnesota; Iron Mountain, Michigan; and Browntown, Wisconsin. Gold flags are the highest honor given to plants that consistently demonstrate best practices in EHS. 🌟 A round of applause to our blue flag recipients— Biscoe, North Carolina; Reedsburg, Wisconsin; and Meadville, Pennsylvania. Blue flags are awarded to plants for achieving above-average results in EHS. And great work to our green flag recipient, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, for meeting their EHS requirements! Grede facilities need to meet these goals to achieve flags: 📊 TRIR Rate (Total Recordable Incident Rate) 📉 DART Rate (Days Away Restricted Time) 📝 EMS Internal Audit Score 📋 SHMS Internal Audit Score ⏱️ Training Hours Completed 👀 Observations Completed 📅 Weekly EHS Audits 🌍 Environmental Inspections 🛠️ EHS Steering Committee Meetings 🕒 Consecutive Days Without a Lost Time Incident 🔧 EHS Continuous Improvement Projects Fantastic work, and thank you to these teams for demonstrating their commitment to environmental, health, and safety in 2024! 👏
We love supporting local high school robotics teams! 🦾🦿 For two years, Grede has supported the combined Robotics Team for the two local Birmingham High Schools in Michigan. Members of the Grede Engineering and Program Management teams volunteer their time to provide technical guidance and mentorship. This Automation Nation robotics team has been having a great season at various FIRST Robotics Competitions. They recently won a quality award, brought home a blue banner, and were selected as a first-seed team! They’re competing in the state championships this weekend in Saginaw. If they make it through states, they move up to U.S. finals! Earlier this week, Sr. Program Manager Alan Carion visited the team and congratulated them on their recent win. We wish them the best of luck this weekend! We’re happy to support and engage with high school robotics students, invest in their futures, and provide awareness of the opportunities for engineering and technology careers in foundries. 🚀👨🎓
To wrap up Women's History Month, meet Heather Smith, Mold Line Supervisor, from our Iron Mountain foundry in Michigan. 💪👩🏭 Heather has been with us for over 20 years, and her positive attitude, along with her tenacity and commitment to continuous improvement, has played a pivotal role in her professional growth. Heather worked her way up at Grede; she started on the assembly line, later became a trainer, and was promoted to a lead position. She was then promoted to Core Room Supervisor and is now our Mold Line Supervisor. 🚀 In this video, Heather emphasizes the importance of prioritizing daily duties and never being afraid to ask questions, whether about safety, quality, or any other aspect of the job. Heather's journey is a testament to the opportunities for growth and development at Grede. We're proud to have her on the leadership team and celebrate her contributions during Women's History Month.
Grede's Plant of the Year is... (drum roll, please!) 🥁 Grede St. Cloud! 🏆🎉 For the fourth consecutive year, our foundry in St. Cloud, Minnesota, has won Grede's coveted Plant of the Year award out of ten facilities. This award is part of our internal recognition program, the Grede Eagle Awards. Our St. Cloud foundry also won the following 2024 Eagle Awards: 🏆 EHS Flag Program Plant of the Year 🏆 External Quality Award 🏆 Internal Quality Award 🏆 Delivery Award 🏆 Inventory Management Award Grede St. Cloud plays a pivotal role in driving excellence in the mobility industry. This foundry is a powerhouse for our automotive customers and also serves some commercial truck clients. These photos showcase some of the 365+ team members at St. Cloud with their awards. Keep it up, St. Cloud team, and thank you for driving excellence within Grede! Want to learn more about Grede St. Cloud? Watch our overview video about this plant: https://lnkd.in/eRxF7mVV
Spring is here, and Grede is proud to play its part by supporting the ag industry. 👨🌾🚜🌾 Here’s one of the biggest ag castings we make for CNH Industrial Quadtrac tractor. Grede has been making this idler wheel for many years. Grede New Castle made it until 2022 when Grede Browntown took over production. There are 16 of these wheels per tractor (4 per track, 2 tracks per side). Grede Browntown proudly displays this casting, alongside products, outside its building. Agriculture customers such as CNH Industrial have relied on us for high quality parts like this one to keep their equipment moving and their farms growing. Happy National Agriculture Week! #FirstDayOfSpring #AgricultureWeek #IndustrialMarket #GoFurtherWithGrede
