Wired for excellence
By Walt Frank, wfrank@altoonamirror.comArticle Photos
General Cable of Altoona employees' drive for excellence will be saluted Tuesday as IndustryWeek officials recognize the local facility for being one of 2009's 10 best manufacturing plants in North America.
It is the second time the Altoona plant has received the award. It also made the list in 2003.
General Cable, which produces ignition wire sets, and its plant in Piedras Negras, Mexico, which manufactures original equipment manufacturer wire harnesses, were selected by Penton Media's IndustryWeek magazine as winners in the magazine's 2009 Best Plants Competition.
The award program, which started 20 years ago, is an annual salute to outstanding manufacturing facilities on the leading edge of efforts to increase competitiveness, enhance customer satisfaction and create stimulating and rewarding work environments.
"This plant has met the toughest challenges of manufacturing excellence - continuing to achieve high levels of excellence. As anyone engaged in continuous improvement can attest, pursuing excellence is one challenge, and maintaining it is quite another," Jill Jusko, IndustryWeek senior editor, said in a statement.
General Cable employees are proud of the award, said Ken Smith, plant manager.
"This is a significant award. We look at this as a benchmark to verify we are on the right track with lean improvements. Not only did we record a certain level, but we have sustained that and gone beyond that," Smith said. "We are one of two companies ever to win a second time, and we are the only plant within General Cable to have won twice."
General Cable, headquartered in Highland Heights, Ky., is a leader in the development, design, manufacture, marketing and distribution of copper, aluminum and fiber optic wire and cable products for the energy, industrial, specialty and communications markets.
Operating out of what was for years the Sylvania plant at 3101 Pleasant Valley Blvd., the Altoona operation, formerly known as Carol Cable, has been part of the Altoona community for 20 years.
"We manufacture ignition wire sets for the aftermarket and the OEM for the automotive industry. The aftermarket makes up the bulk of our business, about 75 to 80 percent," Smith said. "Most of our products go to auto parts stores."
"These are the spark plug wires on your car," said Chris Rogers, manufacturing manager.
For example, Durablast is a brand name that is sold in Auto Zone stores, and Advance Auto Parts sells General Cable products under the Honeywell label.
The local plant turns out about 150,000 ignition wire sets a week - or 7.8 million a year - in about 6,000 different combinations, Smith said.
Before 2004, the local plant produced other products such as wire harness assemblies, battery cables, booster cables and extension cords.
"We always made ignition wire sets," Smith said. "We decided to focus on what we were most competitive with."
The 200,000-square-foot Altoona plant, which houses manufacturing operations on the first floor and warehousing and distribution on the second floor, is a medium-sized plant within General Cable North America and one of the top five in terms of employee headcount, Smith said.
Today the plant employs 240 hourly and salaried workers.
"Employment has been fairly flat this year," Smith said.
"We have been fairly consistent over the years," Rogers said. "We have been fortunate to hold our own business through this [economic] decline."
Smith credits the work force for the plant's success.
"The key to our success is the drive that is in our associates to keep improving and doing things better," Smith said. "Everybody here in the plant wants the facility to be here long enough for all of us to retire from it."
Mike Sgro, materials manager, said, "It is not only the people but the work ethic of this area."
Smith is optimistic about the future of the Altoona plant.
"Our job is to get as many accounts that are available that we don't already have. We would love to diversify," Smith said. "Our key is to be cost-competitive and the best supplier."
Smith said it is possible General Cable may again go outside the auto industry in the future.
"There may be other opportunities," Smith said. "It is our goal to decide what they are and what we can do here in Altoona to bring them here."
Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 946-7467.
