Olympic Steel – Bettendorf, IA: Matthew Berglund

The “recycle, repurpose, reuse” concept doesn’t only apply to cans and cardboard boxes. Sometimes the materials and equipment we have in our facilities and workspace can be transformed to serve a new purpose.

A great example of this recently took place in Olympic Steel’s Bettendorf, Iowa facility where Matt Berglund (former VMC Operator and current F-Bay Lead) refurbished an old VMC table to increase capacity for the division. Bettendorf was over capacity on their larger VF-8 machine and outsourcing the work to meet demand. Matt was able to retrofit a larger table, refurbished in house, to an old VMC that was not being used for production. The reduced outsourcing costs and work hours, increased capacity and ability to avoid having to purchase a new table for the old VMC saved the division more than $71,500.

Lesson Learned: Before heading out to buy something new, take a look at what you already have on hand, and see if you might have some or all of the solution you need available at no cost. A little elbow grease and something “old” can be transformed to serve a new purpose.