Smooth Terrain
Quick Start helps Fleetguard crank up Georgia plant
Sometimes everything just falls into place. Back in 2003, executives at Fleetguard were looking for a location where the company would be closer to its customers for mufflers and all-terrain vehicle frames.
“Sixty percent of our customers are in the Southeast,” says Trevor Charlton, vice president of global exhaust operations for Fleetguard, “and we had looked at about 20 sites in the region.”
Fleetguard was just about to choose a site in a neighboring state when the team heard that Kwikset, a lock manufacturer, was planning to move out of a plant in Waynesboro, Ga.
“We were already speccing out a new building when we got a phone call,” Charlton says, relating the sequence of serendipitous events that would bring the company to Waynesboro. “Three or four days later, we looked at this site and made up our minds.”
The Waynesboro location was perfect. The building included features that were ideal for Fleetguard’s manufacturing processes, and Quick Start was already on the scene, ready to provide a smooth transition as Kwikset moved out and Fleetguard moved in.
“No doubt about it,” Charlton says. “The existence of a trained staff and Quick Start’s ability to continue with us was a major factor in our coming to the Waynesboro area.”
Since then, Quick Start has worked with Fleetguard developing job aids and work instructions, and training in core skills such as blueprint reading, hands-on welding and safety for its 258 employees. Quick Start helped Fleetguard get certified in ISO/TS 16949, a program of quality standards specific to the automotive industry, and the current focus is on supporting the company as it moves its “Line of the Future” — the largest piece of automated equipment in the plant — from Wisconsin to Georgia.
“Quick Start has sent people to Wisconsin to develop high-priority work instructions so employees can be certified on job tasks prior to the line being delivered to Waynesboro,” says Eddie Fite, Quick Start’s project lead.
“It’s a great manufacturing strategy and a great training strategy,” says Charlton. “Quick Start’s approach is excellent, and they’ve been an excellent resource for the past three years.”
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