Steve Finch
Steve Finch, a Kettering graduate, was recently featured in the Buffalo News for work he’s done helping to turn around a GM engine plant in Tonawanda. From the story:
General Motors was facing desperate times in 2009, and questions were swirling about the future of its Town of Tonawanda engine plant.
It all hit home for Steve Finch, a Buffalo native and plant manager of the Tonawanda facility, a cornerstone of the local auto manufacturing industry.
“I tried not to show it, but on the inside, the reality was that none of us really knew what was going to happen,” Finch said.
He sized up the challenges. He knew GM was going to close plants and that the Tonawanda facility’s location, outside GM’s “hub” in Southeastern Michigan, might make it more vulnerable.
Finch managed the situation the best way he knew.
“The thing that I told people at that time, I can remember, is that the best thing we could do is perform,” Finch said. “The only amount of influence I felt we really had was whatever the measure was – whether it was safety, quality, meeting our schedules and demand of the customers, as small it was – let’s make sure every metric was as good as it could be, so that the people that were looking at where we’re going to put [GM’s] business in the future would want to consider this plant based on its performance.”
