Bremen Castings adds machining & ductile iron in nine months.

Aiming for one-stop shopping appeal, this third-generation family-run iron foundry is aggressively implementing major changes.

When you look at the monumental changes that have taken place over the first nine months of 1996 at Bremen Castings, Inc.

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Sure, there was 1968, when the firm replaced its manual and jolt-squeeze molding with their first of six Hunter automatic molding machines, and became that supplier's 127th installation worldwide. But it isn't every day that you see a foundry launching a ductile iron and internal machining operation within nine months, as BCI did this year.

But to James E. Brown (whose grandfather Ellis Brown founded the company in 1939 with Charles Kling and Harold Heckamen) 1996 was just another page in the BCI story. "I don't think this year or next year will be that much different from what we've done over the last eight years," he said. "We simply try to make major changes every year, and invest a lot back into the company."

So if you ask him and the other six management staff members to pinpoint a key year in the $18 million job shop's history, they agree it was probably 1988.

From 1982-87, said Brown, the company wasn't reinvesting in the plant properly and was living off its success from the 1970s. While sales were hanging relatively steady at about $14 million, the foundry wasn't profitable. Brown was named president in 1988, and immediately recost all the firm's castings. "In some cases, we returned to customers with 20-30% price increases. We separated those customers we wanted to do business with," he said.

"Working to get our costs in line is what helped save us. Three years later, we were making money again."

That same year, a 40-ton vertical channel induction holding furnace was installed to give greater flexibility and control in chemistry, quality and capacity.

Then in 1991, the union work force walked out, beginning a strike that lasted 30 months. The firm had become uncompetitive with the union's excessively-paid fringes and work rules, and couldn't meet the union's demands. Production was picked up by staff, and after one month 40% of the hourly workers crossed the picket lines. Today, the 160-employee, union-free firm has401K and gainsharing programs (averaged $2000 per employee in '95) and pays for training for employees at all levels.