Eriez Magnetics celebrates 70 years in Erie, PA
Erie, Pennsylvania, is a city that few Canadians know much about, and probably even less about where it’s located.
Granted its name gives it away by saying it’s in Pennsylvania and that, most likely, it’s located near, or on, the shore of Lake Erie, but other than that, it’s a relatively unknown place on the map to most Canadians. To give it scale, it’s about the size of Kamloops, B.C., or Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Geographically, Erie, PA., is directly across the lake from London, Ontario, and about a four-hour drive southwest of Toronto. It’s about midway between Buffalo and Cleveland on the 100-kilometre sliver of northwestern Pennsylvania that separates New York and Ohio.
In other words, it’s located in a lesser-known part of the United States; a place where most Americans, outside of the 101,000 who live in Erie, know much about either, or moreover, what makes “The Lake City” tick.
The city’s nickname, once again, describes its location, and it’s because of its proximity to the lake, that Erie became a port during the early days of Great Lakes’ shipping. And, like most ports, it thrived because of industry and thanks to companies like GE Transportation and the manufacturing of railway locomotives, dating back to the Industrial Revolution; Erie became the economic hub in the northwest part of the state.
GE Transportation remains the city’s number one employer with more than 3100 workers, but it’s not alone when it comes to calling Erie “home” and to providing steady jobs to residents of the city.
In fact, Eriez Magnetics is another company that has been providing jobs to the people of Erie for many years; 70 of them now, dating back to 1942 when founder O.F. Merwin came up with the idea of using a simple plate magnet in a grain mill to catch ferrous metallic objects that may have fallen into a mill’s conveyor systems.
From that original plate magnet, the technology of “magnetization” has grown substantially, and so too has Eriez Magnetics as it celebrates its 70th Anniversary this year.
With nearly 1,000 employees working in a dozen manufacturing facilities located throughout North and South America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia, Eriez is obviously a world-wide figure in manufacturing circles; but what makes the company most respected by its peers and worthy of this article in Canadian Mining Journal is that it values its roots, and respects its employees.
Unlike many major corporations today, Eriez Magnetics has chosen to remain where it started by maintaining its world headquarters at the corners of Asbury Road and 26th Street near the Erie International Airport.
The Eriez building is a landmark within the community, but what makes the company stand out even more among its neighbours and the community at large is that the one-storey structure has also been the “place of work” for generations of employees.
Keith Jones, the company’s Director of Corporate Communications and a 35-year employee, says: “Loyalty, both on the part of the company and its employees, is probably one of our greatest strengths.
“The thing I’ve noticed most about the people who have worked here over my 40 years with the company is the pride almost everyone has in what they do and whom they work for.”
One of the first things visitors to the Eriez facility notice is that throughout the buildings (from administration to the shops) each and every employee has their name attached to either their office door, cubicle or workstation on the shop floor, and beside the name (in most cases) there’s a star, or in many instances; several, as shown on the previous page.
Jones explained that a star is given for each five years of employment and as just mentioned, many of the employees proudly display more stars than their name plates can handle.
In fact, it’s not uncommon to see six or seven stars, in every department, and in Jones’ case, there are seven.
“I won’t get my eighth star because I’m retiring this year, but there are quite a few with seven and even eight.”
It’s that kind of commitment the company bases much of its success on, but as Daniel Norrgran, Product Manager, Minerals & Materials Processings says, “It’s the quality and the variety of products we manufacture that have made Eriez recognized around the world.
“To say we have the market covered is a bit of an understatement because right now we have more than 600 individual pieces of equipment designed for heavy and light industry, recycling, filtration and fluid recycling, and for use in metalworking applications.”
The company has come a long way from the days of that original simple plate magnet, but Norrgran says that through the founding Merwin family’s stewardship, Eriez engineers and designers continue to identify opportunities and develop equipment solutions to meet the markets’ needs.
But regardless of what the marketplace demands, everything at Eriez comes back to teamwork and the human component of the manufacturing process.
“Besides our products,” says Keith Jones, “it’s our people, their loyalty and the pride they have in working for the company and the community that make the difference. I’m always amazed and proud of how much volunteer work Eriez employees do for the community.
“Habitat for Humanity and Neighbourhood Clean are two of the more popular global endeavours but our people also volunteer for leadership positions on non-profit boards and other community organizations by adding their professional expertise in management, accounting, marketing and more.”
The next generation of workers are also important to the future of Eriez Magnetics and the company routinely offers high school, college and university students the opportunity to visit their facilities and to hear about the manufacturing and marketing process that has made the company a leader in its field.
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