A great success story coming from the WEDnetPA partner - North Central PA Regional Planning and Development Commission featuring participating company: Keystone Powdered Metal Company.
Commonly referred to as the “Powdered Metal Capital of the World”, St. Marys, Pennsylvania is home to Keystone Powdered Metal Company, a large manufacturer of powdered metal components and assemblies for the automotive industry. Approximately 40% of the world’s powdered metal parts are produced by just 55 powder metallurgy plants in our region, employing over 10,000 people. These parts are common to the automotive industry, lawn and garden products and home appliances. As a major Tier I and Tier II supplier to the auto industry, Keystone was challenged with how to address - Quality Assurance. As benchmarks for quality are met or exceeded, consumer’s expectations increase and the benchmarks for quality are raised. We have shown our commitment to product quality and customer compliance by moving from the national standards to the International TS 16949 quality management system.
Keystone is continually faced with the need to train new and existing employees. Our people are our greatest resource. Training is as much a commitment to our people as it is to quality. The top training needs for Keystone are Internal Auditing and Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerances (GD&T), both specifically affecting Quality Assurance. Quality Assurance is essential to our industry.
North Central plays a significant role in workforce development for our region. We have been utilizing WEDnetPA since 2001. WEDnet has been a steady resource in addressing our training needs, especially when we’ve seen decreases in our training budget. In particular, the auto industry saw recession in 2008-2009. Our region was hit especially hard and we watched our unemployment rate rise into the double digits, some (areas) nearing 20%. As things are starting to pick up for the auto industry, we need to be particularly cognizant of quality and ensuring that we are prepared to exceed standards, and this means more training.
North Central is not only our WEDnet Partner, but…is key in locating training providers and bringing key training components to our region, such as Human Resources related training, Employment Law, etc. WEDnetPA has helped us get to where we want to go…(and) when it comes to our Workforce Development needs, North Central is there.
