In 2001, Mark Donegan was named president and chief operating officer of Precision Castparts, and in August of the next two years, he took on the roles of chief executive officer and chairman, respectively. As mentioned earlier, Donegan joined the company as a manufacturing supervisor in Portland in 1985. The acquisition of the airfoils business created many new career opportunities in the company, and Donegan went to Cleveland to run a small ceramic core facility and, soon afterwards, a large aerospace airfoil plant. He returned in the early 1990s to lead the structural casting business through some of the toughest times in the company’s history – driving out costs, reducing lead times, enhancing relationships with long-time customers, and adding important new customers.

With the acquisition of Wyman-Gordon in late 1999, Donegan headed to Massachusetts to turn what had been an ailing business into a strong, vital enterprise with significant opportunities for profitable growth. In all of these assignments, he developed a keen focus on a manufacturing operation’s daily metrics and the requirements for a business’s long-term success.

The aerospace industry was mired at the bottom of one of its cycles when Donegan took the reins as chief executive officer. He seized this downturn as an opportunity. Confident in the operations’ ability to reduce cost structures going forward, Donegan offered major aerospace customers deflationary pricing in exchange for longer term contracts and market share gains. This approach proved so successful that, when the new contracts kicked in at the beginning of 2003, the company had the largest number of parts under development in its history. As these components moved into production, and the cycle ramped back up, Precision Castparts achieved unprecedented sales levels.

While continuing to drive the daily manufacturing discipline through the plants, Donegan focused on profitable growth by diligently pursuing strategic acquisitions that complemented the company’s core competencies. In late 2003, the company acquired SPS Technologies, a manufacturer of fasteners, primarily for critical aerospace applications. Just as Wyman-Gordon had, SPS served as a platform on which to build an all-new segment: Fastener Products. Since the acquisition, five additional fastener businesses have been added to expand its complement of products to offer to aircraft and engine customers. Cannon-Muskegon, a manufacturer of nickel-based alloys for the casting industry, was also part of the SPS deal and enabled Precision Castparts to meet all its casting requirements for nickel ingot internally.

The acquisition of Special Metals in 2006 guaranteed a similar nickel-based independence for the company’s forging businesses. Before Special Metals, Wyman-Gordon was buying all its nickel billet from outside suppliers; now the forging operation gets more than 70 percent of its billet from Special Metals. In addition, this acquisition opened up sizeable opportunities in general industrial markets previously untapped by Precision Castparts, including oil & gas, chemical transport, and industrial processing. The internal capability to melt alloy and create the input stock for forgings, castings, and fasteners inspired the acquisition of Caledonian the following year. Caledonian’s expertise is sorting, cleaning, and reconditioning metal revert, which can then be reused to manufacture components – often at a considerable discount to virgin metals.

Donegan also exploited underutilized internal assets to enter new markets. Wyman-Gordon’s ability to extrude long lengths of seamless pipe was just a footnote at the time of acquisition. However, no one had conceived of this pipe’s value in coal-fired plant applications. China and India have since purchased billions of dollars of this pipe to connect the boiler to the steam turbine. Wyman-Gordon formed an Energy Group specifically targeted on products such as 9 5/8” downhole casing, subsea clad pipe, and specialized forgings.

Acquisitions will continue to play a major role in Precision Castparts’ long-term strategy. Forged Products has significantly broadened its product offerings to expand its reach into both aerospace and oil & gas end markets. Similarly, Airframe Products has added further aerospace fastener assets to its portfolio and has aggressively acquired aerostructures companies to complement Primus International’s line of complex components and assemblies. And, in addition to providing a critical, internal supply of titanium, the acquisition of TIMET opens up a vast range of operational synergies and solid opportunities for top- and bottom-line growth.