ed the dark, dingy manufacturing environment in which institutional knowledge was most valued with a clean, automated factory driven by continuous improvement.
"Work was getting done, but it was not a world-class manufacturing environment," says Ed Magee, New Factory York general manager. "We wanted to create a sustainable lean culture."
Within the four walls of its lone manufacturing building in York, roughly 1,000 production workers now fabricate, paint and assemble motorcycles in three process areas with a system simplified by automated guided carts.
Conveyor belts transporting parts through the painting process that once stretched nine miles are now three miles in length.
Robots now rhythmically weld parts together -- faster, more precisely. They churn out 20% more fenders per shift than in years past, with two fewer employees.
In the flatter organization, workers now have one of five job classifications, a notable change from the 65 classifications used in the old framework.
New Factory York also now relies on flexible workers to supplement its leaner workforce. During what it calls its surge period, the company ups its production by 50% and brings in a bevy of flexible workers to work side-by-side with full-time hourly employees.
"We're making more motorcycles in one building than we did in all of those old ones," Magee says.
And "we never stopped producing motorcycles while switching over," he reveals.
Read more about 2013 IW Best Plants winners.
See the IW Best Plants winners at the 2014 IW Best Plants Conference.
