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MiMfg Magazine
November 2017
Fred Keller
2017 MFG Lifetime Achievement
Cascade Engineering Inc.
Fred Keller
Founder
Cascade Engineering Inc.
With a core competency in large-scale
plastic injection molding, Cascade
Engineering is a global company
comprised of nine strategic business
units serving a wide variety of markets
including automotive, commercial truck
and bus, solid waste and recycling,
furniture and material handling. As one
of the largest certified B Corps in the
world, Cascade Engineering is widely
recognized for its business practices,
which emphasize how business can build
financial, social and environmental capital.
excellence
AWARDS
Even though Cascade Engineering has
experienced the same economic downdrafts,
ruthless Lopez-style cost cutting and jarring
changes in U.S. policy as other manufacturers,
Fred Keller has kept remarkably consistent
with his desire to run a profitable company
that makes a difference for employees, his
community and the world at large.
For his work of more than 40 years as
the driving force of Cascade Engineering in
Grand Rapids, Keller was named a 2017
MFG Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
As founder and top executive for much of
Cascade Engineering’s history, Keller man-
aged to grow the plastic injection-molding
company from a six-person shop in 1973 to a
far-flung corporation that employs about
1,600 people across 15 facilities at six U.S.
locations and operations in Budapest, Hungary.
During all that time, Cascade Engineering
has taken forays into several areas that other
companies consider well beyond the scope of
for-profit organizations: a welfare-to-career
program with an on-site social worker, a
program to introduce former felons to
manufacturing as a career and a strong emphasis
on reducing the impact of manufacturing on
the environment.
“People often think doing the right
thing takes away from the profitability of
the company,” said Keller, who continues his
philanthropic work after having stepped down
as CEO of Cascade Engineering in 2014.
“My experience is the opposite.”
Keller said that the benefits a company
receives from devoting resources to improving
the social fabric of a community may not be
readily apparent before a program is launched.
In many ways, a company has to have faith that —
between tangible and intangible benefits —
the journey will be worth the effort.
“When we started on our Welfare to
Career journey, we had no idea that it might
actually be beneficial to our company,” Keller
said. “We learned along the way that in order
to retain people from welfare at high rates, we
had to be extraordinary in our ability to
understand what it means to be in poverty.
“The stress of providing for your family
when resources are so scarce that one car
breakdown, one sick child or one abusive
incident can mean the end of your employment,
is hard for people of middle and upper classes
to understand. By supporting these folks who
are transitioning out of poverty, we learned
that the entire organization felt more support-
ed. And this has had incredible benefits for us
as an organization.”
Cascade Engineering estimates that the
Welfare to Career program has helped about
800 individuals to leave welfare and engage
in careers since its inception in 1999. The
company provides training in the operation and
processes involved in design and manufacture
of large-part plastic injection molded products
for heavy truck and automotive, trash collection,
office furniture and reusable pallet and
container applications.
Having learned valuable lessons through
the Welfare to Career program, Keller decided
to tackle another social problem; helping
convicted felons who were struggling to
find decent jobs due to their criminal record.
Under the Returning Citizens program,
Cascade Engineering removed the section
in its employment form that asked about an
applicant’s prior convictions and set up a
system of support to help former inmates
succeed in a work environment that may be
new to them.
Of the about 690 people who worked at
Cascade Engineer’s facilities in metro Grand
Rapids last year, more than 75 were formerly
incarcerated, the company said.
“It has made us a stronger, more resilient
and, frankly, a more long-term, steady growth
organization,” Keller said. “Large or small, if it
is the right thing to do, my advice is to do it!
It may seem like it is costly, but in the long
run it is a benefit.”
Keller’s story continues on page 32.
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