Background
For more than five decades, family-owned and -operated sand and permanent mold aluminum casting manufacturer LeClaire Manufacturing in Bettendorf, IA, has used technology to grow.
Opening its doors for the first time in 1966, the company’s goal is to reduce the cost of large aluminum castings as much as possible for customers. As a single-source supplier, LeClaire Manufacturing’s 200 employees offer everything from designing castings and engineering/building patterns and dies to aluminum permanent mold casting and machining.
CustomerNeeds
LeClaire Manufacturing wanted to improve internal communication among employees who handle and move material from production to other departments. When staff members from different departments needed to communicate, they had to use personal cell phones, track someone down in person, or page the entire company. With foundry and machine divisions housed in separate buildings that are nearly a mile apart, the company also wanted to facilitate faster communication between the two buildings.
Knowing that Motorola two-way radios systems are recognized for their reliability, LeClaire Manufacturing searched for a technology partner that could help them get the solution they needed – and discovered that CEC had worked with Motorola for decades.
Solution
After meeting with LeClaire Manufacturing to learn more about its communication challenges, CEC’s two-way communications experts devised a cost-effective plan to roll out a two-way solution. The company’s new system is comprised of a base station, two types of handhelds, and a booster to improve the communications signal in its machine shop.
Communication has improved for every department with the new solution in place. Supervisors easily discuss material issues. The machine shop quickly connects with the shipping department about material location. Even the inside sales team interacts with supervisors about urgent customer requests as soon as they arise.
After deploying a two-way communications system, LeClaire Manufacturing can now:
- Facilitate reliable employee communication, even in extreme manufacturing environments
- Decrease the response time of manufacturing support departments when addressing plant issues
- Reduce usage of the warehouse’s paging system for messages for certain groups or individuals
- Improve the employee-headcount accountability process during safety drills, furthering employee safety during emergencies
- Set individual channels for different departments to cut down on excess chatter
- Communicate about potential manufacturing problems in real time to correct errors on the spot
“Being able to have instant communication between departments and warehouses is exceptional. This new Motorola system allows our teams to communicate in a safe and efficient manner, which furthers our ability as a company to promptly service the needs of our customers.”
