Page 64 - MetalForming October 2012

tough management decisions needed to get us where we need to go. They (the employees) know and share my pas- sion, and know well that I can be com- passionate when I need to be, and tough when toughness is required.
“I’ve enjoyed the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated indus- try,” Froehlich continues, “and at the
WIM Summit last year I thoroughly enjoyed networking with like-minded women, committed to success and to overcoming any and all obstacles.”
Former-Harley Executive Bats Leadoff on Day Two
Leading off the WIM Summit agen- da on Tuesday, October 30, is a wel-
come address by guest speaker Gail A. Lione, recently retired from Harley- Davidson after having served for 13 years as executive vice president, gen- eral counsel and secretary, and chief compliance officer for the company, as well as completing a 5-yr. term as president of the Harley-Davidson Foundation. Lione, named 2012 Mil-
62 MetalForming/October 2012
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Women Starring at Several Metalforming Companies
Over the last year, MetalForming magazine and the PMA Educational Foundation have collaborated to tell the stories of several leading metalforming companies that were named Metalforming Pioneers as part of a recognition program spon- sored by the Hitachi Foundation. These companies were recognized for their commitment to workforce development, and for having experienced quantifiable returns on their training investments.
Of the employees we interviewed at these award-winning companies, several were women who have successfully complet- ed countless training courses, and climbed the ranks within their companies. Here we retell a few of those compelling stories.
At western-Michigan metalformer Pridgeon and Clay, we met a recent graduate of its inhouse APO (automatic press operator) training program: Donna Carrothers. Carrothers joined the compa- ny in 1999 as a utility worker, stacking parts and helping the press operators. In 2001 she applied for and was awarded a machine-operator job and later became a lift-truck driver. In February 2007 she was awarded an APO trainee position and by the end of the year had become an APO. Carrothers has enjoyed a boost in wages of nearly 70 percent.
Carrothers, in addition to enjoying having personal responsibil- ity for her work, also relishes opportunities to work on project teams, to lend the perspective of a press operator to help improve productivity and quality on the floor. “I appreciate the opportunity
provided to add my thoughts. I may not consider myself an expert yet, but I’m getting there.”
Says Julie Church Krafft, corporate director of human resources: “What Donna is doing on the floor and in project teams is preparing her for the next step, when she’s ready to take it, which is to become a setup technician. And we sure hope she pursues that, because we can’t find good setup techs...we have to grow them.”
At E.J. Ajax Co., Fridley, MN, we met Althea DrePaul, Class B apprentice machine operator and 2008 graduate of the Twin Cities’ M-Powered manufacturing career-development program. “Through M-Powered and Hired, I now have a skill set I never thought I’d have,” says DrePaul. I’ve been given all of the skills I need to be successful—the opportunities are there, I just have to grab them.”
DrePaul emigrated from Guyana in 2001 and worked in the home healthcare industry for several years before being laid off in 2006. As a machine operator at E.J. Ajax, she earns twice what she earned in home healthcare, and also boasts about the com- pany’s benefits program.
In addition to DrePaul’s responsibilities on the plant floor, where she partnered with another operator to earn Ajax’s 2011 5-S project of the year recognition, DrePaul also acts as vice chair