"Successful by Design"

Jill Lusko

Industry Week

October 2005, pp. 34-68

This article consists of 2 or 3 page descriptions of the winners of the 2004 Industry Week's Best Plants awards. The winners are:

1. Boston Scientific Corp.—Wayne, NJ (abdominal and thoracic grafts). On time delivery is at 99.8%, and employee suggestions saved $1.4 million in 2004.
2. Bowater—Catawba, SC (coated paper and market pulp). Manufacturing time has dropped roughly one third over the last three years. They have exceeded 6 million work hours without a lost-time injury. Two-thirds of the energy consumed comes from biomass or other renewable energy sources.
3. Dj Orthopedics, LLC—Vista, CA (custom knee and elbow braces, and cold therapy treatments). Kaizen blitzes and other projects have saved the plant $16 million since 2000. More than 95% of new products are launched on time and on budget.
4. General Cable Corp.—Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada (insulated underground electrical cable). This plant has reduced defect rates by 72% during the past three years. The plant has operated more than 17 years without a lost-time injury. First-pass yield is 99.6%.
5. The Hon Co.—Cedartown, GA (metal and wooden case goods; vertical and lateral filing cabinets, desks, and bookcases) Costs were reduced by $7 million in one year, and profitability increased by 27% over 3 years.
6. National Gypsum Co.—Gibsonton, FL (gypsum wallboard). This plant reports zero shipping errors for 35 consecutive months. First-pass yield is 97.6%.
7. Solectron Corp.—Columbia, SC (contract manufacturing of computer, networking and data storage equipment). This plant uses a combination of Lean and Six Sigma. WIP has been reduced to 0.5 to 1 day. Lead times have been reduced an average of 25%. Production lines have been shortened an average of 50%.
8. Storage Technology (Bermuda) LTD—Ponce, Puerto Rico (tape drives, virtual storage systems, automated tape libraries and disk storage systems). This plant has reduced costs by $2.5 million in one year. Cycle times have been reduced by an average of 20 percent. Field reliability has improved by 59 percent.
9. Thomas & Betts Corp.—Athens, TN (electrical outlet and conduit boxes, metal framing accessories, and plastic wiring duct). This facility has gone more than 1.4 million hours without a lost-time accident. Finished goods inventory has been cut in half. WIP has been reduced by 74%. Material storage space has been reduced by 68%.
10. TRW OSS Mexican Operations—Reynosa, Tamauupas, Mexico (seatbelt retractors, buckles and height adjusters). First-pass yield is 99.5% and on-time delivery rate is 99.8%.

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