Meet Juana Arroyo, one of our OD Grinders at our GWS-Batavia facility in Batavia, Illinois. Juana has been at GWS Tool Group facilities in Illinois since 2020.

Juana has worked in cutting tool manufacturing for almost thirty years! In the beginning of her career, she worked for Sandvik for sixteen years. She worked in Operations there, handling a little bit of everything. Upon leaving there, she went to work at NA Tools, which was acquired by GWS Tool Group in 2020. She worked there for eleven years, working as a CNC grinder. When she decided to relocate within the state of Illinois, she moved to Batavia and joined our team at that facility.

These days, Juana handles the many aspects of grinding that we use to manufacture our cutting tools. She also finds herself helping with various other operations around the facility, happy to help wherever needed. Juana says she really enjoys being a grinder because every day is different, and the new challenges and projects that come her way keep her engaged and ready to learn. The challenging work with various tools and technologies makes her feel like she’ll always be learning something new, which is one of her favorite things about GWS! Juana’s favorite types of production jobs are the ones that involve custom tooling solutions. Her goal is to increase her knowledge and skill set to better help her complete the many different operations that are involved in manufacturing custom cutting tools.

She says the working environment at her facility is very family-like, with everyone working on different projects on different machines and always ready to help each other out when needed. Some of the larger orders require lots of teamwork across multiple machines, and everyone is willing to step in and help out to get the job done correctly and on time for our customers.

Life Outside GWS

Juana lives a calm, family-orientated life outside of work. Her three daughters, all in college, still live with her at home. The four of them always find something fun they can do together as a family. She finds joy in taking care of her family, whether it be hosting large family parties or simply making sure everyone gets to enjoy her cooking!

Juana also enjoys going to the gym, but her favorite activity is swimming. She also loves to go horseback riding, especially in her native country of Mexico! Juana and her family try to visit Mexico every year, always finding new places to visit. Juana is originally from Toluca, Mexico, with her sister and brother still living in Mexico. This year, Juana and her daughters are mixing it up from their regular plans, they are planning a trip to Cancun!

Interested In A Career At GWS Tool Group?

If you enjoy working with dedicated people like Juana, consider applying to GWS Tool Group. We are always looking for talented and driven individuals to work at our facilities in Florida, California, Illinois, Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Canada. Browse open jobs here.