The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) has awarded Accuride’s operations in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Rockford, Illinois, with a 2015 AME Excellence Award. An AME representative will visit the Erie facility to present the award on Sept. 18 and the Rockford facility on Sept. 22. Both plants also will be honored during the AME 2015 International Conference, taking place Oct. 19-23, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The AME Excellence Award recognizes North American manufacturing plants that have demonstrated excellence in manufacturing and business. The rigorous selection process begins when a company submits an extensive achievement report based on the AME Excellence Award evaluation criteria. For companies that score high enough during the achievement report review, an intensive site visit is completed, during which a volunteer team of manufacturing practitioners validates the submitted achievement report. Only a handful of applicants merit a site visit and approximately one third of the visits result in a site being recognized as an award recipient.
Accuride Henderson Operations in Kentucky received the AME Excellence Award in 2014.
“Accuride truly embodies what the AME Excellence Award stands for achieving excellence throughout the enterprise,” said Barbara Morrison, AME president and CEO. “An achievement this big demonstrates that Accuride employees at all levels are engaged and committed to the lean journey.”
“Receiving three AME Excellence Awards in two years for our operations is a distinct honor for Accuride that demonstrates our ability to install and operate lean systems at multiple sites across our enterprise,” said Rick Dauch, Accuride president and CEO. “Our plants receiving awards this year have their origins in the 1800s and are represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW). This demonstrates union-represented facilities’ ability to embrace lean and make themselves competitive in North America through a combination of strong and disciplined management, capable union leadership, a dedicated workforce, effective suppliers and multi-year investments in industry-leading process capability and product technology.”
During their evaluation, the AME assessment team highlighted Accuride Erie Operations’ continuous improvement philosophy, observing management driving a culture of metrics-based performance to satisfy customer needs. The assessors also praised the facility’s standout strengths of detailed level planning of plan-for-every-part (PFEP), well-organized product development data and their strong focus on material flow improvements utilizing value stream mapping, visual kanban pull processes and more.
During the Accuride Rockford Operations site visit, the AME assessment team highlighted the plant’s standout strengths, which included the application of visual scheduling boards resulting in the launch of fourth-generation production pull boards and the use of value stream mapping in the factory and for office processes. The assessment team praised the Rockford facility’s corporate and factory Hoshin kanri methods, and the execution program tied to the associate incentive/bonus program. The assessment team also commended the Rockford facility’s partnership with a perishable tooling supplier and effort to use 100 percent of tool life.
Accuride’s Rockford operation manufactures Gunite brand brake drums, slack adjusters and other wheel-end components for the North American commercial vehicle industry. Along with its focus on innovative product design, development and manufacturing, Rockford Operations continues to emphasize quality and dependable performance for customers.
Accuride’s Erie operation is one of two Accuride plants in the United States dedicated solely to the manufacturing of forged aluminum wheels for the North American commercial vehicle industry. Erie Operations contains forge presses and advanced heat treat technology, coupled with best-in-class automated aluminum wheel machining and polishing technology.
