43
Valley company finds success in its people, product amd productivity
By Kristine Gill
AUSTINTOWN
He’s new to the company, but the CEO and president of Hynes Industries in Austintown is already familiar with the work ethic and reputation of his staff.
“I’m definitely wet behind the ears,” said University of Michigan graduate Donald Golding.
In November, the company received an award from its largest client. WABASH National Corp., a trucking company, presented Hynes with a Platinum Award for outstanding quality and delivery performance including a 100 percent on-time delivery record.
Hynes produces steel cargo restraint pieces for semitrailers.
“In 2010, everyone was still very slow coming out of the economic downturn, but [WABASH was] ramping up in a month or two and not every supplier base could ramp up,” said Michael Giambattista, general manager of roll-formed products. “Knock on wood, we didn’t have any problems on that end.”
Former president and now lead director, Bill Bresnahan said receiving the award was a significant acheivement for Hynes.
“They have literally thousands of suppliers,” he said. “That’s a pretty good track record when you consider we’re not just sort of knocking things off on a long-term schedule. We’re getting calls on a daily basis.”
Hynes Industries has produced custom steel shapes for use in everyday products including appliances and furniture since 1925. It exports to 38 states with a separate location in Kokomo, Ind. Bresnahan will now work to improve the company’s southeastern regional sales. He is also the product manager for FlexAngle, the division of products used for slotted shelving and racking.
Its Oakwood Avenue facility includes four plants with a fifth at the Industrial Road location. Each plant deals with a step in the process of converting coiled steel to the specialized pieces used in elevators, garage doors, semi-trailers, coffins, wheelchairs and refrigerators, among other products.
The plant recently began making steel posts that couple with cable to create barriers in highway medians. The cable barriers absorb the impact of a collision and are better alternatives to the metal guardrails, which can make vehicles bounce off and back into oncoming traffic.
Pat Montana, manager for the steel products division, said there’s a great working relationship at the plant.
In Montana’s area, Plant 1, 40,000-pound coils of steel wait, each marked with information about their chemistry and size. The coils are lifted with a 20-ton crane and fed through slitting machines that trim them to specified lengths and widths.
Some of those coiled pieces are sold to distributors and others go next door to Plant 2, where they are stamped and bent into shapes ordered by clients.
Hynes uses a roll-form procedure which means coils of steel are continuously fed through a machine where they are slowly molded. Smaller pieces are then cut from the larger roll.
Other companies use press breaking and cut pieces to size first, then spend time bending each piece separately afterward, a method Giambattista says takes more time.
“We’ve got a great work force,” Giambattista said. “They understand the customer care thought process. They adapt. The product changes every day.”
The Industrial Road location, known as Plant 5, was added in 2000 so Hynes could better process longer pieces of steel intended for 53-foot semi-trailers, produced mainly for WABASH.
Golding said he was proud to join a staff of such dedicated people.
“The work force out on the shop floor is third-generation employees,” he said. “There are brothers and uncles.”
“And husbands and wives,” Montana added.
“They’re really the extended Hynes family,” Golding said. “People have come to Hynes and made a career of it.”
Bresnahan agreed.
“We have a pretty collegial sort of atmostphere,” he said. “People feel good about working with one another.”