In Case You Missed It… Grede St. Cloud Foundry Tour
| In Case You Missed It… The April 12th Grede St. Cloud Foundry Tour was well-attended and brought in several special guests. At left, L to R: John Haas, Grede Plant Manager, Steve Burch, AFS TC Chair, Mike Lenahan, BMC, AFS Past President, and Greg Kramer, AFS Director of Environment, Health, and Safety. Pictured top right is John Haas, Joy Clifford, AFS TC Secretary/Treasurer, and Steve Burch. Bottom right, Steve presents speaker gift to John Haas. Tom Peterson from Grede won the 50/50 raffle and donated it to the AFS TC Scholarship Fund.
AFS Twin Cities Chapter travels to St. Cloud to tour Grede Foundry on Tuesday, April 12th beginning at 2:30 p.m. Groups of 5-10 people will tour the foundry based on arrival time. When tours are completed, we will meet at House of Pizza in Sartell for a Social sponsored by Grede, Dinner Buffet, and a presentation by John Haas, Grede St. Cloud Plant Manager, “Grede Foundry Updates and the State of Business.” About the Tour… The Grede St Cloud Foundry was originally a steel foundry that opened in 1991 by M.E. International. Grede Foundries purchased the foundry in 1995 and transformed it into a Ductile iron foundry. The foundry has had three major expansions over the years (1996, 1998 and 2015). The foundry spans over 330,000 square feet in its main building. The foundry operates both mold lines on a 24 hour per day basis. The plant melts about 700 tons of iron per day and ships nearly 350 tons daily. The highly automated facility is a Tier 1 supplier to GM’s Heavy Duty pick-up trucks. The plant produces parts for the Ram, Ford’s Super-duty, and other automakers. In addition to these parts, the foundry produces castings for heavy truck, construction, and agricultural customers. The foundry employees over 350 employees. Grede-St Cloud was recently named as The William J. Grede Plant of the Year for 2021. Grede has 10 facilities operating in the US and employees over 2500 people. About the Speaker… John Haas returned to Grede as the Plant Manager of the Saint Cloud Foundry in November 2020. Prior to that, he spent over two years as the President of Cadillac Casting in Cadillac, Michigan and a year as the President of Dalton Corporation in Warsaw, Indiana. John’s expertise and extensive foundry knowledge is the product of his more than 45 years of working within the metal casting industry. He started in the field while in college. He obtained a BS in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He also received a Master of Business Administration degree from Xavier University. John steadily progressed through a number of positions and gained extensive experience during these growth opportunities. Over the course of his career, John has risen through the following positions at a variety of companies – Plant Metallurgist, Melt Superintendent, Quality Manager, Technical Director, Plant Manager, VP of Operations, Group VP, and President. He also spent four years as an internal consultant and management resource (both domestically and internationally) at a large steel producer. At Grede, John has built up an exceptional team. John and this group of talented people transformed the Saint Cloud foundry into the premier foundry within the organization. The plant is a leader in safety, quality, productivity, and profitability metrics. John is currently a member of the American Foundry Society Board of Directors. Schedule… 2:30pm Grede Foundry Tours – 5200 Foundry Circle St. Cloud, MN 56303 4:30pm Social Hour at House of Pizza (sponsored by Grede Foundry) 1733 Pine Cone Rd. S., Suite 200 Sartell, MN 56377 5:30pm Dinner Buffet 6:00pm Presentation – John Haas Register below by Monday, April 11th at noon. Click here to view newsletter. |
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