All over Northwest Indiana, the locals know about AFS Corporate Member Urschel Labs, a global manufacturer of commercial food-cutting machines. Discreetly hidden less than a mile from the I-80 entrance ramp in Chesterton––an hour east of Chicago––the company is highly regarded for two primary reasons: (1) People say the factory is so clean and bright you could eat off the floors, and (2) people love working here because Urschel takes good care of its employees. To borrow one of the company’s favorite phrases, “any way you slice it,” the people-first manufacturer and its two captive foundries enjoy a pristine reputation as well as global success year after year. 

Founded in 1910 in Valparaiso, Indiana, by the inventor, William Urschel, the manufacturer now resides in a 10-year-old, 525,000-sq.-ft. facility at “Cutting Edge Drive” on 160 acres accented with walking trails and wooded borders. Following two different locations in Valparaiso, the company moved to its state-of-the-art, $80-million greenfield home in 2015 and has since expanded multiple times––most recently with the 2023 addition of 115,000 sq. ft. of new factory space, increased test kitchen areas, and a large, 24/7 workout gym, named “CrossCut,” that rivals any national chain. 

Today, Rick Urschel is president and CEO; his father, Bob Urschel, retired while the new expansion was under construction. Spanning 12-decades, the inventing and innovating gene of the Urschels has led to the exponential growth from its one original “Gooseberry Snipper” machine to now numerous cutters that slice, dice, shred, crumble, mill, strip, and granulate food products ranging from dairy and produce to meat, seafood, and pet food. Rather than employing an assembly-line approach, machines at Urschel are hand-assembled start to finish by one person. 
Apart from outsourced engines, all critical parts that go into an Urschel machine are produced in-house. That includes castings.

Two Captive Foundries

Early in its history, Urschel built an investment casting foundry inside its factory, followed by a green sand foundry in the ’50s. Today, the one-shift foundries share inhouse patternmaking, core- and mold-making, grinding, sawing, heat treat, cleaning/peening, and oxidizing.

The investment foundry pours five different stainless-steel alloys: 303, 17-4, 316-L, 304, and “Urschalloy,” a proprietary cobalt-based steel developed for extra strength. A team of 11, including Supervisor Patrick Newton, produce castings from .125 lb. (2 oz.) to 50 lbs., many ranging from 3–6 lbs. Two induction furnaces–¬–55-ton and 85-ton capacities––melt 140,000 lbs. of steel a year, and the foundry typically pours 4–6 melts per hour. One of the investment foundry’s pinnacle achievements is its highly-intricate, 40,000th-inch cutting head casting used in food pureeing applications.

Recently, the investment foundry installed a labor-saving, automated aluminum deoxidizer; the plant also harnesses two dipping robots. Like the rest of the Urschel factory, cleanliness is of utmost importance. 

“The slurry room is no different,” said Rodriguez, who guided Modern Casting through a two-hour tour. “I’ve been in a lot of slurry rooms where slurry is just everywhere, all over the sides of tanks and on the floor. Our slurries are clean and very well maintained on a daily basis. It used to be my job to take care of them, and every day you’re checking the viscosity and making sure everything is at the right levels. 

Although most of the equipment in both foundries is over 15 years old, a brand-new automated, robotic saw for gate-cutting and grinding is already making a safety impact since its arrival in January, keeping human hands away from cutting edges. It’s also reducing fatigue for operators. 

“It was a lot of manual labor to grind gatings down,” said Rodriguez. “We just introduced a new line of shoes in the investment foundry that are poured out of 17-4 and we’re doing 300 of them per order. Those are fully-machined castings, but the gating is on both ends of the shoe, so it’s 600 gates that you’re grinding and sanding down, which took a lot of time for an individual to stand there and do––plus it’s a lot of wear on their body and their hands. So the robot cell has completely taken over that function.”

The green sand foundry, also housed within the sprawling Chesterton facility, uses the nobake process, which was introduced prior to the relocation in the early 2000s. Also furnished with two induction furnaces, this foundry pours about 123,000 lbs. of 303 stainless steel, 112,000 lbs. of 304, and approximately 51,000 lbs. of bronze annually, including its own bronze-magnesium alloy. Casting sizes range from under 1 lb. to 298 lbs.––the smallest, 1- to 2-lb. parts are bronze; stainless steel parts start at about 5 lbs. 

The nobake foundry team of nine, led by Supervisor Travis Rodriguez, has over 130 years of combined casting experience; the company in general boasts an average employee tenure of 10-15 years, Rodriguez estimated. 

Whereas excellent surface finish often factors into the selection for investment casting in the metalcasting marketplace, at these captive foundries the decision between nobake versus investment has more to do with (A) efficiency, (B) cost, (C) time, and (D) requirements for fine details, like that ultra-tight 40,000th-inch cutting head with intricate and narrow features. Rodriguez says the company once considered opening its foundries for outside jobs, but in the end, management realized they never wanted to have to choose between prioritizing customer work versus Urschel’s own casting needs. 

Self-Perpetuating Aftermarket

Urschel produces 15–20 finished cutting machines a week on average, says Rodriguez, and ships to its own distribution facilities in 14 countries and regions: Argentina, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Netherlands, Nordic (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, and, most recently, Canada. Serving major, multibillion-dollar food producers––think Kraft and Frito Lay––Urschel has few competitors but is nonetheless protective of its proprietary designs and processes. 

With millions of its machines operating worldwide, Urschel has built a healthy and completely-captive aftermarket business, which comprises approximately 75% of its total castings output. Many are the rows and shelves of tooling for current and up to decades-old parts needed for cutting machines still in active duty––they dare not destroy a pattern till they’re well-assured a machine is fully obsolete in the wide world of food processing. 

Gear-related and other wear parts aside, the manufacturer’s No. 1 best-selling aftermarket replacement part is not a casting. It’s knives––not surprising for a cutting-machine supplier, some of whose customers swap out cutting edges at a pace of every 90 minutes round the clock. 

This year, Urschel itself is swapping out a major component of the business––arguably the most important. To support its modern manufacturing girth, the company is in the process of replacing its homegrown business enterprise software system for a new, off-the-shelf ERP that will become the central nervous system of the company and its hundreds of mission-critical processes. To say there’s some trepidation during the handoff would not be an exaggeration. Old and new systems will be run side by side for a safe duration, said Rodriguez, who has heard about industry mishaps during tech transitions. He recalled a U.S. candy bar maker that switched its business system a few years ago and saw Halloween sales melt when the ERP failed to push out production orders for increased volumes. 

Proud to Work at Urschel

Urschel Labs employs about 500 people in Chesterton and from its beginning, family ownership maintained a business approach that has put its people-first mindset into action. One example: Rodriguez said that in its entire century-plus history, it’s never had a layoff. But the biggest demonstration of the company’s respect and care for employees occurred in 2015––and it was a shock.

“Bob Urschel, who was chaiman of the board, was going to retire and there was a lot of talk,” said Rodriguez.

“Everyone thought they were going to sell the company. It was a scary time; we didn’t know what was going to happen to us if they sold. And then they held a big meeting for everyone in the company. CEO RickUrschel got up and announced, ‘We’re selling the company,’ and everybody’s jaws dropped. Then he said, “Here’s who we are selling to,’ and he put up a picture of one of our employees, and then another and another. ‘We’re selling the company to you guys,’ he said. We didn’t even know what an ESOP was [employee owned stock option], but everyone was so excited that they weren’t selling the company off. It’s been a huge gamechanger.”

The ownership transfer became official in 2016. Today, every employee is fully vested in the ESOP from Day 1 of employment, and the shares have become quite valuable. “They give us regular sales updates, and every year we beat our past-year’s record,” said 46-year-old Rodriguez, who wasn’t yet a supervisor at the time of the switch. “I went home and told my wife, ‘If they grow at the percentage they’re projecting, I’m going to retire at 55!’”

Company culture wasn’t greatly altered after the transaction, he added, because the company had already established itself as an employer that lavishly cares for its workforce. From generous and frequent holiday gifts and events to bowling and golf leagues to a summertime muscle-car show, Urschel employees know what it’s like to be spoiled. The epic and always-anticipated event of the year, said Rodriguez, is the company’s summer blowout family picnic replete with all-you-can-eat food and ice cream trucks, face painting, games, and fireworks. Raffle giveaways send lucky winners home with treasures like PlayStations, iPhones, high-end sports tickets, and $500 gift cards to big-box stores. 

“If you work at Urschel, it’s something you’re proud of,” Rodriguez said. “My dad worked here before me, and it’s always meant something; you work at a great place. Even before the ESOP, you already felt like it was yours because of the way they treated and respected you.”