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L.B. Foster supplies transportation, construction, utility, energy, recreation and agriculture markets with the materials necessary to build and maintain their infrastructure. Today, L.B. Foster Company is a leading manufacturer, fabricator and distributor of quality transportation and construction materials. The company is committed to meeting customer requirements and increasing buyer satisfaction. Infrastructure Products for Worldwide Markets. Our innovative technology is fueling new product development that defines L.B. Foster as the solutions leader in energy, construction and transportation markets. The L.B Foster team is delivering the products and solutions necessary to satisfy our customer`s most demanding challenges. Our company is expanding and adapting to changing customer needs with industry-leading products and services.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations
- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Construction & Construction Materials
- Market Focus:
- Globally (various continents)
About Us
Your Legacy of Quality Products and Landmark Projects.
Today’s infrastructure is built on L.B. Foster’s legacy. For more than a century, our company has provided the materials necessary to construct and maintain major transportation, construction, utility, recreation and agriculture projects. L.B. Foster products have recently contributed to the improvement of many landmark structures including the Panama Canal, Brooklyn Bridge and New Orleans flood walls.
L.B. Foster operates individual business units that specialize in rail, construction and tubular products. These groups manage manufacturing, distribution and sales facilities nationwide. We also function as a distributor and service provider in strategic alliances with industry leading manufacturing and engineering firms.
Our company maintains ongoing programs that enhance product quality, improve operational processes and assure employee safety. L.B. Foster is committed to providing superior products for our customers, an entrepreneurial climate for our employees and exceptional value for our stakeholders.
L.B. Foster has been traded publicly since 1981 on the NASDAQ with the ticker symbol FSTR.
Operational Excellence
Ten L.B. Foster facilities are certified and operating within ISO 9001:2000 standards. Each plant is also working to obtain the new ISO 9000:2008 certification. Company facilities incorporate Lean methods and Continuous Improvement tools in their processes to create increased efficiency, reduced variation and improved product quality. L.B. Foster's commitment to quality management includes employee participation in Six Sigma strategies throughout the company.
Employee Safety
L.B. Foster employs a comprehensive safety and well-being program that has led to higher production capacity and increased employee satisfaction. These safety initiatives have produced a shared concern for the health of all team members and a dramatic reduction in workplace injuries.
The L.B. Foster Company Mission Statement
L.B. Foster Company is committed to provide superior products and services to our customers, an entrepreneurial climate to our employees, and exceptional value to our stakeholders through progressive management and meaningful change.
Our Vision is to deliver to our customers quality, timely solutions and be responsive to our changing markets. We will accomplish this by Fostering Excellence in our employees - by providing tools, training and innovation to ensure the L.B. Foster Company will prosper as an industry leader now and in the future.
- Integrity
- Continuous Improvement
- Accountability
- Safety
- Team Work
- Commitment
- Customer Focus
History
Lee B. Foster was only 20 years old when he founded the company that bears his name. Financed in 1902 with a small $2500 loan from his father, L.B. Foster Company has grown for more than a century to become a leader in the manufacture, fabrication and distribution of infrastructure products and materials.
Foster began the company to service a transportation need he recognized while growing up around his father’s oil business in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Lee saw that his father received many inquiries from mines, logging camps, and quarries about the availability of relay (used) train rail. Because no truck transportation existed at the time, permanent and temporary rail spurs were the only means for transporting heavy materials to and from jobsites near and far. New rail was costly and Foster saw an opportunity to resell rail that had been retrieved from abandoned and replaced railroads and urban transit systems.
To encourage the sale of used material, Lee Foster initiated a guarantee that set his firm apart from others and contributed greatly to his success: “If the material is not up to the standard represented, ship it back and we will pay the freight both ways.” This dedication to customer satisfaction became a core company value and remains today at the forefront of the L.B. Foster customer service policy.
Lee’s success attracted the notice of his three brothers, Reuben, Sydney and Byron. All eventually joined the company and the brothers worked well together. Lee changed his sole proprietorship into a four-way partnership in 1918. L.B. Foster Company soon expanded with the opening of new offices in New York City in 1922 and Chicago four years later. The company began trading publicly on the NASDAQ stock exchange (FSTR) in 1981.
In addition to transportation products, L.B. Foster Company began to focus on other infrastructure-related industries for new expansion. Today the company markets its products to businesses involved in transportation, construction, energy, utility, recreation and agriculture.
Lee B. Foster II, the founder’s grandson, managed the company as President and Chief Executive Officer from 1990 until 2002 and today serves as Chairman of the Board. Mr. Foster provides a vital and ongoing link between the company’s industrious past and its current and future success.
In 1999 the company acquired CXT Inc., a leading manufacturer of engineered concrete products for railroad and recreation markets. This acquisition positioned L.B. Foster to better serve customers with a comprehensive line of mainline, transit and industrial rail products. The purchase of CXT also expanded the company into the production of recreational and multi-purpose precast concrete buildings.
At the end of December 2010, L.B. Foster acquired Portec Rail Products, Inc. and its catalog of below the wheel rail items, worldwide manufacturing facilities and knowledgeable professional staff. Newly expanded L.B. Foster began offering a larger line of rail products that included new and relay rail, switches, track lubricating equipment, spikes, anchors, fasteners, concrete ties and wayside data collection systems. The acquisition also provided the Rail Products group with a larger international presence, expanded customer support, additional R&D capabilities and the well-earned goodwill of a century-old company.
As America has grown, L.B. Foster Company has grown as well by providing the material necessary to build and maintain our nation’s infrastructure. The company’s products are currently being used for the construction and rehabilitation of important projects such as the New Orleans Flood Barrier, Brooklyn Bridge and Panama Canal. As the world’s infrastructure continues to expand, L.B. Foster will be there with the products needed to build it strong.
A Business System Designed for Performance
Our quest for business excellence employs a robust strategy to deliver customer satisfaction and maximize company profits. We have set realistic and achievable goals for our team that are being met with a performance culture. L.B. Foster's people and key processes are fundamental to our success. Having our team and processes align properly and work smoothly drives satisfaction and loyalty to our customer base.
Our business system begins with people first and an ongoing team building process that leads to customer centricity. The company launched a talent management initiative to ensure we have trained, motivated individuals in the proper positions necessary to realize our strategies. As a team, we are often offered a tough challenge that we answer with an innovative solution. These successes are borne from the positive interactions between L.B. Foster professionals and our customers.
Behind the team is a business system that brings consistency and effectiveness to each customer encounter and quality design to every product developed. Integrated into our process improvement philosophy are tools such as a new ERP system, performance management, strategy execution, and a continuous sustainable improvement model which serves as a capstone that drives the success of our company's business system.
We are creating a performance culture that provides a clear path to the creation of customer satisfaction and sustained shareholder value. L.B. Foster is developing more profitable business models and using our unique business process system to drive performance.
L.B. Foster Recognized for Workplace Health and Environmental Standards
OHSAS 18001:2007 and ISO 14001 Management Systems Certifications
L.B. Foster Company has been awarded OHSAS 18001:2007 Management System and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) certificates by SRI Quality System Registrar in recognition of the company’s effective implementation of standards and systems that maintain a healthy, safe workplace and commit the company to good environmental practices.
The certificates apply to corporate office activities for the research, development, design and manufacture of construction, tubular and railroad products and to L.B. Foster’s Burnaby, British Columbia facility relative to the research, development, design and manufacture of railroad products. “This recognition demonstrates our team’s hard work to create and maintain an environment that encourages both our employees’ health and safety and the well-being of the communities in which we live and work,” noted Ben McClellan, L.B. Foster Environmental Health and Safety Director.
- OHSAS 18001:2007 certification is awarded to organizations that successfully link business objectives with operating effectiveness. This certification acknowledges L.B. Foster’s implementation of a Best Practices regimen for the company’s operational processes and a commitment to continual improvement.
- ISO 14001 certification recognizes L.B. Foster’s effective environmental management efforts to conserve input materials and energy, attain necessary permits and authorizations, and maintain good public/community relations.
SRI Quality System Registrar is widely recognized as a leading internationally accredited registrar for management systems standards.