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Secat Interviewed Two Employee-Owners at Scot Forge
Dennis Wilkerson, Corporate Alloy Identity Examiner / Metallurgical Technician
• Give us a quick overview of your job.
As an employee-owner at Scot Forge, I wear many hats, jumping between multiple roles to meet the needs of our customers. As the alloy identity examiner, I manage the process of ensuring forgings are the proper grade to meet customers’ specific needs. When I wear my metallurgical outsourcing technician hat, I review certification reports to guarantee that high-quality standards are fulfilled. As a data collection analyst, I collect and analyze information to make improvements that allow us to create the industry’s best forgings.
• What are some things that happen for you in a typical day at work?
My day is always different, but it begins with collaborations between fellow Scot Forge owners in the metallurgical lab. Depending on the role I play that day, I will work with my team to review and complete testing operations to meet customer demands or collect data for metallurgists to review and make the best decisions on processing.
• How does your job impact the markets you serve?
My job impacts the markets we serve in that I help our company optimize processes to create efficiencies and cost savings for our customers. Additionally, I ensure that our forgings, from chemistry to performance, meet our customers’ requirements to ensure part performance and safety, as our forgings play a critical role in supporting our nation, from bridges to semiconductor production.
• How do you interact with Secat, Inc. and how does the relationship benefit you?
I recently was able to collaborate with Nick and Shridas on heat treatment processing, which resulted in some changes that Secat implemented successfully, giving positive results that benefited everyone.
• Tell us something about yourself (outside of the industry) that people may not know.
I owned a furniture store in South Carolina. This business venture gave me the foundation for understanding customer service and juggling many different roles, which helps me today as an employee-owner.
David Johnson, Outsourcing Laboratory Technician
• Give us a quick overview of your job.
I work for Scot Forge, a more than 130-year-old company that is 100% employee-owned, and I am a member of the Metlab. My primary responsibility is to ensure that our customers’ testing requirements and specifications are met. I do this by overseeing all testing that is required to be outsourced because it cannot be completed in-house. A key part of my job is knowing the testing capabilities and accreditation of our outside test labs and keeping traceability of test samples.
• What are some things that happen for you in a typical day at work?
A typical day starts with accessing the testing workload that needs to go out from all three of our plants. I then package and label the test samples so that they arrive at the outside test facility intact. Once the test pieces return, I receive and review test results before disseminating them to the appropriate employee-owner to continue the validation process of the forging.
• How does your job impact the markets you serve?
Oftentimes, the traceability, testing and certification paperwork is more important to our customers than the forging itself. Much of what we manufacture is used in highly demanding applications, from needing to withstand the ocean’s depths to enduring the outer limits of space. So, ensuring our parts meet specifications and requirements through the testing we perform outside or in-house directly impacts infrastructure, space launch, defense and everything in between protecting people and our environment.
• How do you interact with Secat, Inc. and how does the relationship benefit you?
We partner with Secat for heat treatment processes. I enjoy the Secat team’s collaboration as we make in-person visits to them and them to us, keeping an open door for communication, which has produced continuous improvement in our testing process.
• Tell us something about yourself (outside of the industry) that people may not know.
I served in the Army Reserves for 21 years and retired as a platoon sergeant in an engineering company. From the beginning, the military instilled the importance of attention to detail, accomplishment of my mission and the welfare of my Soldiers. I find that same unwavering commitment at Scot Forge as employee-owners work together to forge a better future for those we serve.
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