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McWane Ductile Iron Pipe Companies Join Together to Form McWane Ductile

Jan 27

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Today marks an exciting and historic change for the McWane ductile iron pipe companies. Effective immediately, McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company, Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Company, Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Company, and Clow Water Systems will operate unified under the new name McWane Ductile. This consolidation reflects a united company focused on providing excellent service and quality products to our customers, while making all of the divisions recognizable as part of the McWane family of companies.

In a letter to the team, McWane Ductile Sr. Vice President, Jeff Otterstedt said,

“We will make a public announcement later today; however, it’s important to us to first share it with our valued team members — the people who work so hard each and every day to make our company successful.”

This decision wasn’t made lightly. After lengthy consideration, it became clear that while we have many significant and rich traditions that are unique to each of our divisions, we become stronger collectively as one distinct brand. And, although our name has changed, our promise to our team members, customers, and partners remains the same as we build on our nearly 100-year history of creating iron-strong utilities.

There are many good reasons for this change. Not only does it provide our North American and international customers with a uniform business experience across our operations by standardizing purchase orders and acknowledgements, terms and conditions, invoicing, RMA procedures, quotations, submittals, and most other customer service processes, but it also aligns the best practices and cultures from all of our operations under one vision. We should note that Canada Pipe, also a member of the McWane ductile iron pipe companies, will retain its name, which best reflects its unique position as the leading ductile iron pipe provider in Canada.

With this unification, we are fully committed to maintaining and continually investing in our three plants, located in Phillipsburg, New Jersey; Coshocton, Ohio; and Provo, Utah. While we’re excited to forge ahead as McWane Ductile, we understand that it can be difficult to embrace change while saying goodbye to old traditions. We hope that you’ll consider this an opportunity to bring the very best parts of your current culture to this new brand that we can all be proud to call our own.

You’ll find more information on our new website at http://www.mcwaneductile.com.

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Meet McWane: Recent Retirees

We have had several of our team member retiree from various divisions over the past month and would like to highlight them for their service!

Glen Cox 45 YearsGlen Cox, Pacific States: 45 Years

Pacific States Team members bid a fond farewell to Glen Cox at his retirement party at the beginning of the month. Glen joined the Pac States team over 45 years ago in 1968. His most recent job was in the Melding Department as the Iron Yard Crane Operator, a job he had held since 2008.

Jack Terrill 43 Years

Jack Terill, Tyler Pipe & Coupling: 43 Years

On January 9, team members at Tyler Pipe & Coupling, retirees, family, and friends came together to bid a fond farewell to Jack Terrill who was retiring after 43 years of service. Jack joined the Tyler team on December 20, 1971, and worked as a Warehouse Worker “B” in the Coupling Department at the time of his retirement.
Everyone enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane with Jack. To show Jack their appreciation, Plant Manager Bill Hoffman gave Jack a watch and a Tyler Pipe & Coupling hat.

Nelson Greenleaf 47 Years

Nelson Greenleaf, Atlantic States: 47

Atlantic States will be bidding a fond farewell to veteran team member Nelson Greenleaf in February. Nelson is retiring after almost 48 years of service! During his tenure with the company, Nelson has seen a lot of changes. In fact, the company has changed names 3 times since his arrival!
Since he started in 1968, Nelson has worked throughout the entire plant and currently holds the position of Scale House Technician. Nelson is known for saying thanks for coming in today, and the entire team will miss hearing that.
An amazing thing about Nelson is that he hasn’t been absent or late since 1995 which gives him perfect attendance for the past 20 years. Wow! He is an exceptional and dedicated employee who will truly be missed. Nelson has helped build Atlantic States to what it is today and we are thankful for all his years of service.
Nelson is looking forward to retirement so he can spend time with his family at their vacation home at the beach in Delaware. The team presented Nelson with an aerial view picture of Atlantic States signed by the entire team on the back along with $1,500 in gift cards.

Sam Wester 31 Years

Sam Wester, Amerex: 31 Years

The Amerex team bids a fond farewell to HR Manager Sam Wester who retired last week after 31 years of service. You would be hard-pressed to find somone at Amerex whomSam didn’t help or hire over the years. The team held a retirement party for Sam on Friday, January 23, at Flemings.
Everyone enjoyed the night and had lots of laughs taking a walk down memory lane with Sam.

Virgel Esteban 30 Years

Team AB&I recently bid a fond farewell to Virgel Esteban after 30 years of service as an Electrician. His send off included a luncheon with a wide variety of Chinese food, including roasted duck and chow mein.
In gratitude for his service to AB&I, Virgel was presented with a trip for two to Chicago, Illinois. He also received a gift from the Sales Team and a retirement plaque.
Thank you, Virgel. for being a dedicated member of the AB&I Team for the last 30 years. We will surely miss you and hope you enjoy your retirement as well as your time in the windy city.

We are honored to have such committed team members to dedicate life-long service to the McWane Family of Companies. We appreciate all that each of you have done and wish you all a very happy retirement. Thank you for you service!

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Pac States is “All In!”

Pac States All In

L – R: John Julander, Kelly Evans, & Layne Draper

 

Pacific States Plant Manager Scott Jarvis wanted to share with the rest of the team what “all in” looks like to him.

Atlantic States produces 4” TR Flex pipe and then sends it to Pacific States because they don’t have the ability to weld the rings on the spigot. Upon receipt, the Pac States team welds the rings on the spigots, but before they can do this, each bundle has to be broken down and every other pipe turned so that all of the bells face the same direction. The normal process for this was for a large forklift operator to pick up each piece of pipe and then drive around the layer and put it on the other end so the bells all lined up. It was tedious and time consuming.

Pac States team member Kelly Evans thought, “there has got to be a better way” so he came up with an idea which he shared with fellow team members Layne Draper and John Julander. Together they built a pipe separator that holds a full layer of pipe with every other pipe dropping down into grooves while the other pipe stays at a higher level. The forklift can then pick up the entire upper level of pipe in one pick followed by the entire lower level of pipe, again in one pick, to turn all of the bells in the same direction.

This one brilliant idea helped them achieve a cost per ton below $980 by significantly reducing the amount of time and fuel needed for this job! This is another example of why we need to work together to evaluate the jobs we are performing every day to insure that they are being done in the safest most efficient way.

Congratulations to the Pac States team for thinking outside the box together to come up with a better way to perform this task!

 

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Announcing the Winners of the 2014 McWane Pollution Prevention Challenge

Dec 31

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1st Place Winners - Clow Canada Pattern Modification Team

1st Place Winners – Clow Canada Pattern Modification Team

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2014 McWane Pollution Prevention Challenge (P2C) contest:

1st Place ($1,000 per team member): Clow Canada – Pattern Modification

2nd Place ($500 per team member): Amerex – Dry Paint Rack

3rd Place ($250 per team member): MTE Elkhart – Heat Recovery

3rd Place ($250 per team member): Pacific States – Finishing-Cement Line Water Reduction

A total of 35 pollution prevention project entries were received in July 2014 for this year’s Pollution Prevention Challenge. By the deadline of November 2014, 21 of these projects were submitted for judging by three independent judges. The judges evaluated all the written submittals and selected 12 finalists. The 12 finalists presented their projects via a web meeting on December 16, 2014, after which the judges picked the winning entries.

The judges were:

Beth Stewart – Cahaba River Society

Sarah Burton – Kestrel Management Services

Roald Hazelhoff – Southern Environmental Center

Our sincere thanks to the judges for donating their time and expertise for this process!!

All of us, including the three judges, were very impressed by the innovative ideas, presentations and the keen interest and passion shown by participating team members from different McWane facilities and departments (production, maintenance, engineering, environmental, etc.) in identifying and implementing effective pollution prevention ideas.

To continue to encourage implementation of more pollution prevention ideas at all McWane facilities, the “Why Didn’t I Think of That” Award for entries with innovative, simple and low cost solutions, producing relatively small but important environmental benefits were awarded to the following entries:

Winners of the “Why Didn’t I Think of That!”  Prizes ($100 per team member)

  • Pacific States – Melting-Coke Breeze
  • Clow Canada – Passivation Improvements

We hope to see a continued high level of interest in Pollution Prevention at all McWane facilities going forward. Thank you for everyone’s interest in the 2014 P2C and your support of McWane’s EHS programs and get started with your 2015 projects/ideas.

Congratulations to the winners!!!

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Pacific States HR Manager Jessica Stones Featured in Utah Valley Business Quarterly

Dec 12

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Pac States Jessica Stones in Utah Valley Business Quarterly 1We were pleased to learn that Pacific States HR Manager Jessica Stones was just featured in the Utah Valley Business Quarterly in an article by Briana Stewart entitled “The Iron Woman.” Jessica has worked at Pac States for 10 years and in her interview she said, “This is not a stereotypical office job.”

In a male dominated industry, Jessica has no problem holding her own, but in the article she does caution that the environment at Pac States isn’t for everyone.

“When we’re hiring, people either love it or hate it. They’re either fascinated by the surroundings or they think it’s dirty and antiquated,” she says. “I realize I’m completely biased, but I can’t think of a better place to work. We have the best people – the most respectful people. Everyone is hard working and committed in their jobs, and they give us the freedom and independence to excel and take ownership. It’s the very reason I’ve been here 10 years.”

In her final question for the interview, Briana asked Jessica’s advice for women and men in business. Jessica said, “If you want to do well in your chosen profession, you have to show up. No matter how bright or talented you are, no matter how much you have to offer, be here, be on time and be present. Lay your foundation right.”

Jessica’s article is posted on Utah Valley Business Quarterly’s online magazine – look for her on page 30! – or you can read the article itself here.

We’re proud to have you as a member of our team, Jessica!

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Pacific States Completes Process Audit

Nov 25

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Pac States Audit Group

Pac States Audit Group

The Pipe Group has a program in place called Process Audits. Pacific States just completed a process audit at their facility this week. The process audits work like this – Plant Managers and other members of the Management/Engineering team visit the pipe production facilities and review their processes and work instructions.

They then use this process as a tool to share best practices among the pipe group and look for opportunities for improvement. This process also helps to build relationships among the pipe group team and encourages the sharing of ideas.

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Pacific States Receives Award of Merit from Utah Safety Council

L to R: Utah Safety Council Representative, Katie Lewis, Karen Tuckett, Angie Reece, Chad Monson and David Vazquez

L to R: Utah Safety Council Representative, Katie Lewis, Karen Tuckett, Angie Reece, Chad Monson, and David Vazquez

We are proud to announce that the Utah Safety Council presented Pacific States an Award of Merit in recognition and appreciation of their achievements in the field of safety as measured by outstanding safety performance.

Congratulations to the entire Pac States team for their continued commitment to working safely each and every day!

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Meet McWane: Joe Jarvis, Pacific States

Joe Jarvis 45 Years
We are proud to announce that Pacific States team member Joe Jarvis is celebrating 45 years of service! Joe has been a member of the Pac States team since September 1969! He is an excellent employee and his work space is always clean and tidy. Joe likes to be at work early and no one, including Joe, can remember the last time he missed a day of work. He currently works in the Melting Department and runs the Lab Spectrometer.

Happy Anniversary, Joe. We’re glad you’re still a part of the team after 45 years!

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Meet McWane: Jeremy Stewart, Pacific States

Jeremy Stewart Citizenship

The Pacific States team came together recently to celebrate team member Jeremy Stewart becoming a U.S. citizen. Jeremy grew up in Jamaica and is now a Process Improvement Engineer at Pac States.

At the team’s morning meeting, they celebrated with an American favorite – apple pie and ice cream.

Congratulations Jeremy! We’re proud to have you as a member of our team.

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Pacific States and Tyler Union Donate to USS Iowa

Sep 8

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Modern McWane Summer 2014 - Page 7 ArticleHave you read the latest edition of Modern McWane yet? If so, you probably saw the article on page 7 about McWane’s involvement in the permanent home of the USS Iowa. If not, read ahead for a portion of this interesting story!

Through the Engineering Contractors’ Association (ECA), Pacific States and Tyler Union made donations of ductile iron pipe to the USS Iowa. This donation went toward the final phase of the USS Iowa’s permanent home at the Los Angeles Harbor.

Though now a battleship museum, the USS Iowa once hosted presidents, first ladies, and many other dignitaries during nearly 50 years of service. With that being said, we are delighted that our ductile iron pipe is a part of this national treasure!

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