Foundry is First Tier II Supplier to Earn Toyota Award

(Waupaca, WI) June 20, 2018—One of the world’s leading brands honored Waupaca Foundry for excellence in launching iron casting parts used on material handling equipment. Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing (TIEM), a division of Toyota Industries North America, is a top-selling forklift producer in the United States. Waupaca Foundry has supplied iron castings to TIEM since 2002 including hubs, drums, brackets, wheels and sheaves.

Waupaca Foundry earned one of the five available professional excellence awards and is the first Tier II supplier to be recognized with such award. The professional excellence award is presented to a single supplier who met these qualifications:

          • Suppliers are committed to fulfill duties and obligations with excellence,

          • Suppliers continuously strive for improvement and growth,

          • Suppliers go above and beyond expectations.

“They were dedicated to the success of the project and were able to launch a number of new parts without disruption to TIEM,” said TIEM procurement. 

In 2017, Waupaca Foundry was awarded the contract to produce 21 parts at three of its gray and ductile iron foundries in Waupaca, Wisconsin; Marinette, Wisconsin and Tell City, Indiana. According to TIEM, supply chain partners are required to be customer centric, innovative and proactive, as well as agile and flexible. Waupaca Foundry rapidly and flawlessly launched iron casting parts while maintaining build schedules to support TIEM’s production volume. 

“We were able to flawlessly launch new parts for TIEM because at all levels within our organization our culture is focused on partnering with our customers to meet their goals,” said John Wiesbrock, executive vice president of sales, marketing and supply chain management for Waupaca Foundry. “We are passionate about working collaboratively to provide the best iron casting solutions for our customers.”

Waupaca Foundry’s production management system called “Waupaca Way” engages all employees in continual improvement of iron casting quality, production efficiency, customer service and on-time delivery. 

“We are proud of all our employees who embrace our commitment to continual improvement to reap results for our customers,” said Mike Nikolai, President, COO and CEO of Waupaca Foundry. “Our expected outcomes for our customers are high quality and high satisfaction and it’s rewarding when our team is recognized for their effort.” 

The award was presented on May 16, 2018 at the Toyota Supplier Conference held in Columbus, Indiana.

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