Brian Patrick (left), Tao Lee (center) and Cameron Sargent (right), Olympic Steel – Minneapolis, MN

Olympic Steel – Minneapolis, MN (Plate) Team: Tao Lee, Cameron Sargent and Brian Patrick

The Minneapolis, MN (Plate) division needed replacement parts for a leveler, but the expected delivery was 4 to 8 weeks out.

The Red Bud Line cannot run without these parts. Tao Lee, CNC Programming Supervisor, created a program to reverse engineer the parts on the CNC machine. Cameron Sargent, Machining Lead, and Brian Patrick, CNC Machine Operator, used Tao’s program to manufacture the parts in-house. Their ingenuity saved the division nearly $7,000 in replacement costs and eliminated the downtime that would have occurred if they had to wait for parts.

Lesson Learned: When faced with what seems like a challenge that’s out of your control, take a few moments to think about how you can use what you already have to take the reins and get the job done.