Traditional, one-man leadership has been replaced by something that works better at AFS Corporate Member PIAD Precision Casting Corp., (aka PIAD USA) a non-ferrous foundry 38 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Beginning in June 2023, the company transitioned to a tripartite structure in which a management team of three work together and report to a board of directors. The reorganization has been a catalyst for impressive changes, including sales growth of 44% year over year as of August 31. 

Since its inception in 1967, top-down decision-making was in the hands of a single CEO, but the new approach is decidedly side-by-side, hands-on, and collaborative. In the span of about 18 months, the culture has been transformed as the workforce of 143––up from 81 in that period––are both heard and respected for the talent and tribal knowledge they possess, according to Vice President of Administration Audra Hier.

 The new leadership MO puts people first and trusts them to execute PIAD’s proprietary and patented “chill casting” permanent mold process invented by founders Carl Piel and Carl Adey (whose blended names form PIAD). A key element to the successful new rhythm of the company, adds Vice President of Manufacturing and COO George Latta, is the introduction of “group leads” for every department who serve to guide and assist their teams at ground level.
Originally brought in as a consultant early in ’23 when the former CEO was exiting to care for an aging parent, Hier has evolved into the company’s “visionary,” she says, and today wears two additional hats as chief strategy officer and chief human resources officer. She joins Latta in the daily management of the foundry, accompanied by Director of Finance Josh Riggle, as well as Director of Quality Matt Zahrobsky, Engineering Manager Richard Ray, Product Design Specialist Troy Schrecengost, and Operations Supervisor Adam Nicely.

PIAD puts its money where its heart is, investing generously in employee training and career growth and opportunity through certifications and promotions. And their expanding labor force is supported by apprenticeships in the machine shop and tool and die room. In six months, the machine shop grew from 18 to 37 people, and Hier says the foundry’s second shift will be as fully staffed as the day shift by the end of this year. Team and personal pride pumps throughout the organization, Latta adds, as team members participate in friendly competitions to out-produce one another on the production floor. 

“When they leave here at the end of the day, there’s a reward they carry with them, because they’ve produced something that goes into things people use every day,” Latta said. “They have an aura about them knowing they created something beneficial to society, whether it’s light switches, equipment in a dentist’s office, or the parts on a restaurant revolving door. What they do is incredible.”
The Bottom Line
The new management style evolved organically as Hier and Latta hit their stride as leadership partners. But there’s more than a feel-good vibe happening under the company’s roof.

“When this leadership team took over, not only were we tasked with creating a smooth transition, we’ve also now been tasked with growing the company at rates that haven’t been achieved before,” said Latta. “We’ve almost doubled the output of pounds of copper.”

From an accounting perspective, PIAD eclipsed its own four-year sales record in August and is on track to go one-and-a-half times above its 2023 performance on the top line––the bottom line has already more than doubled year over year, according to Riggle in finance. 

“We are growing more than efficiently,” he said, “and we’re improving at both ends of the spectrum. Richard’s team (engineering and quoting) has done a lot to improve the pricing, which has helped out on margins. We just completed a margin analysis, and where we are now is 10 times better than where we were last year. Then, if you look at the manufacturing side, our efficiency is tremendous compared to last year. We’re operating with close to the same amount of metalcasters and fewer working days, and we’re producing 40,000–50,000 lbs. more each month––we project at least 49% growth in metal cast in 2024 versus 2023.”

Efficiency is indeed paramount in the foundry where 22,000–26,000 parts are manufactured a week from among the 3,307 different sets of tooling housed inside the 37,500-sq.-ft. plant. Latta recalls their purchasing manager, a Navy veteran, once compared PIAD’s well-coordinated system of people and processes to the activity on an aircraft carrier.

The company is comprised of a 25,000-sq.-ft. foundry that includes foundry, smelting, mold cleaning, maintenance, casting cleaning, quality control, and shipping; a 3,300-sq.-ft. tool room, and 9,200 sq. ft. dedicated to offices as well as employee lunch and locker rooms. PIAD’s machine shop, Latrobe Machine Corp. (LMC), 15 minutes away from the foundry, is a 27,400-sq.-ft. facility. In addition to machining, the company offers the additional value-add services of reverse engineering, milling, drilling, cutting, tapping, annealing, heat treating, vibratory finishing, and plating.

Hand Crafted

ISO certified as of October 1 this year, this job shop runs at 68% capacity and operates according to lean manufacturing practices in the production of hand-poured, non-corrosive, permanent-mold copper, bronze, and brass castings for industries such as medical, power distribution, railroad, marine, pump/valve, mining/drilling, material handling, automotive, lock hardware, and munitions. Castings range between 0.13 lbs. and 40 lbs. “Smaller molds are disassembled manually after the casting cycle, quenched, and then reassembled for the next cycle,” Hier explained. “Our larger molds go through a similar process using our semi-automated casting machines.”

“Our process is rhythm based––we call it music,” said Latta, “and there’s a lot of music that goes on underneath the roof of this place every day. We make and handle absolutely everything by hand, one at a time. The process is really something to see.”

Engineering Manager Richard Ray elaborates.

“In permanent mold casting, the molten metal is poured into a mold. Because of the thermal conductivity of the mold material, the heat is quickly drawn out of the casting material and transferred into the mold. This allows the part to solidify more quickly, allowing less time between casting cycles and improving efficiency, he said. “Not only are our mold designs critical for this type of casting, but our casting alloys are equally critical. PIAD’S alloys are designed around the temperatures between a liquid and solid state. By minimizing the gap between these temperatures, it optimizes the amount of heat that has to be extracted from the casting and further encourages rapid solidification. PIAD has become one of the most successful permanent mold foundries because of the knowledge of our alloys and because of our years of experience with mold design.” 

Compared to sand casting, PIAD’s permanent mold process offers a better surface finish––approximating jewelry quality––and less gas in the molds, according to Ray. “You can give the customer a near net shape with virtually no machine stock, just because of the chill process,” he continued. 

Conductivity is also better facilitated with permanent mold casting, according to Latta. 

“The only way you achieve high conductivity in the copper industry is to pour in a permanent mold,” he said. “If they would try to use any type of sand castings with copper, it’ll become very porous and the electric current will not run through it. What makes us unique is pouring the copper by hand into a permanent mold and achieving that conductivity that’s needed for the electrical industry.” 

PIAD doesn’t try to compete on price against sand casting, but the pace and productivity they offer can’t be beat, Ray notes.

“The tooling for sand casting is very cheap,” he said. “Let’s say you have a 30-cavity build box––they press the two sides of the box together, they fill up all 30 cavities with metal, and then they set it aside to cool for about four hours. But in that four hours, we might produce 200 castings in our perm mold process just because of how it pulls the BTUs out of the metal and the solidification. So, if it’s a high-volume part, they may have 10 build boxes. Whereas, we build one mold, and in a day we’ll still produce more parts because of the difference in the process.”

What’s Next

Hier says she and her team are preparing for more growth and expansion in 2025 to keep up with the demands of their 301 customers, most of whom are calling for more castings from PIAD––in some cases, triple the current volumes in the next three to four years. 

“Our major customers are asking for 40%-50% additional volume year over year,” she said. “We are being proactive in our approach, since it takes approximately six months to train a new production employee and three months to train a new machinist or machine operator. We have been incrementally ramping up our manpower at PIAD and LMC on all shifts and will continue to do so until we are at 100% capacity. We have a lot of room to grow and expand as we continue to build our relationships with our customers.”

“We will double in the next year for sure, because we’ve already grown 44% this year,” she added. “It’s pretty phenomenal and exciting all in the same breath.”

In terms of replacements, additional new equipment, and facility expansion, she said they’re putting in Capex proposals that exceed any previous investment plans of the past. 

But PIAD isn’t quite done with change for 2024. Plans are underway to upgrade its engineering software, providing new laptops and licenses for every person in the toolroom. Adding automation is also on the table for the near future, with machining, finishing, and deburring processes all under consideration. 

“Certain processes will have to remain in place,” said Latta, “but we have to look at how we can enhance some of them where we do a lot of hand work. It’s going to be a study, and we’ll need to make sure the investments can be used for all our products to help speed them along.”

Hier added, “I’m always thinking three, five, 10 years ahead, and one thing I often say is, the competition never sleeps. At PIAD, we always need to be one step ahead––and automation is definitely one part of that conversation.”