In 1994 there was a declining company in Hamilton, Ontario that many had forgotten about. National Steel Car had been a booming freight car manufacturer in the early years of its life. Established in 1912, it surpassed initial expectations and began producing supreme rolling stock. The future looked bright for the company, but then the Great Depression hit. The company was not immune to hard times and started to branch out from their normal business to survive. They started producing motors, bus bodies, and boats just to maintain their workforce. World War II helped revive the company a bit, but it was never the same and seemed to be on a slow decline from there when Dofasco purchased it in 1962.
Gregory James Aziz, often called James Aziz, did not know it, but the company was waiting for him. He attended the University of Western Ontario to receive a degree in Economic before he joined a family company, Affiliated Foods. This position was simply the beginning of an education he would need to revive National Steel Car. Affiliated Food grew well over Greg Aziz’s 16-year tenure until he noticed the small haunted company. In 1994, Dofasco had decided to sell the company and started looking for reasonable buyers. From the moment he saw it, he knew that it was the opportunity of a lifetime. He was going to bring the company back to its former glory.
The first thing that Aziz did when he took over was to build the workforce. In six years, he had increased it to almost 3,000 individuals. This was substantial because when he took over there simply wasn’t the manpower that Gregory James Aziz needed to create the change he was looking for. He had a goal to make National Steel Car great once again. Since the workforce was growing so did production. The plant could now pump out over 12,000 cars a year instead of the 3,500 when Aziz became CEO.
Now, National Steel Car has held the TTX SECO quality award since 1996. This reflected the instant attention Aziz gave to quality in the company. They are also one of the very few, and only North American, companies to hold an ISO 900I: 2008 certification. They recertify for this on a regular basis and it is an earmark of their dedication to their work. Since he took over, Gregory Aziz has taken National Steel Car to great heights and they continue to be a major part of the freight car industry.
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