What is The Lawton Standard Co. doing to improve service for the future of the casting industry? First, as our foundries work together, we’re all learning how to communicate better. Next, we’re collaborating to find the best processes, vendors, materials, and equipment. Then we work to improve our consistency across the platform by rolling out the best practices with intention. Here are just a few examples of what we’re doing to raise the standard for foundries.
Communication
The Lawton Standard Co. has been working to develop a means and a distribution channel for content. First, we take the time to listen to all of our employees at each of our locations. When we’re asked questions, we figure that someone at another site likely has the same question. So we go back to our studio in De Pere, where our marketing intern records videos of our leadership team answering these vital questions. The videos are played on monitors at each foundry (we’re still working to install monitors at some locations.)
Collaboration
Across our family of companies, we’ve had the privilege of working together on several projects. Fortunately, we’ve learned to leverage tools like Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, and Zoom, making virtual collaboration easier. But where safe and reasonable, we’ve also worked in-person to implement best practices across each location.
For example, during the week of April 12-16 at Penn-Mar Castings, LLC in Hanover, PA, we hosted a 6S Kaizen event in the grinding room. Participants from all the Lawton family sites were involved in this exciting project.
Consistency
From the look of our websites and marketing collateral to our processes on the melt decks, The Lawton Standard family of companies has been working to provide our customers with a more consistent experience.
You’ll notice that we’ve worked to implement the best documents, graphics, and communication tools across each location. We’re currently working on capabilities documents that will consistently present our capacities at each location. This will make it easier for our customers (especially those who work with multiple locations) to find the right foundry for their castings. If you know how to read one capabilities document, or you’ve visited one of our websites, you’ll find the others look and operate similarly. We’re not identical twins, but we’re sisters. You’ll see the family resemblance. No wonder The C.A. Lawton Co., Temperform, LLC, and Penn-Mar Castings, LLC all say they are proud members of the Lawton Standard Family!
Thanks for taking the time to find out how we’re raising the standard for foundries. Be sure to follow us on your favorite social networks to keep up with our progress. And we can’t wait to get to know you! Feel free to reach out to The Lawton Standard Co. or any of our foundries today.