Drake-Willias Steel Inc.

going through two processes in order to achieve that goal: equipment modernization and lean manufacturing. “The intent is to evaluate our current capabilities from the equipment side in order to move through the different phases of upgrading and modernizing - specifically at the Structural Steel Division,” he relates. “That consists of evaluating different vendors and looking at more automated and robotic systems that are going to result in us being more productive and more efficient. We’re also trying to implement lean manufacturing into our operations. That’s challenging, a little bit, from our standpoint because our manufacturing environment isn’t your typical one. We’re usually building 10,000 unique pieces and so there are some challenges in implementing lean, but we’ve made a big push; we’ve educated and trained individuals on that and we’re seeing a big benefit and good things result from that effort.” In addition, Fitton says that there are two aspects that the company is focusing on regarding its status as an ESOP. “One is paying down all of the debt that we took on as a company to buy out the previous owners,” he explains. “It’s a number one goal of ours because once we’ve paid down our debt, it opens us up for other opportunities. And tied to being an ESOP is to continue to improve the culture that we have here; getting people to buy into the Employee Stock Ownership Program and helping them to understand the impact that they have on the bottom line by taking ownership of all the contributions they bring to the company.” While the COVID-19 pandemic has had some negative impacts on Drake-Williams, as it has country-wide, Fitton reports that, by and large, most of the company’s projects have continued to move ahead on schedule. “We’ve been able to keep the work flowing,” he notes. “Our production staff was working, pretty much, normally, while our office staff did go remote for a period of time. We started bringing office employees back in June, and right now, from a company-