Working Differently
During the last two years, the growing requests of our customers have called us to adjust to ever-increasing higher levels of productivity. This new normal requires us to work smarter and continue to develop innovative manufacturing solutions to operate successfully.
Some ways we are working differently include:
Project Development: Every customer project requiring engineering services now goes through the same product development steps. All product start-up and development will take place at one Alexandria Industries’ facility.
What this means to you:
- Project development steps will be the same, regardless of the location where your product is manufactured.
- Identical equipment, set-up and operation, delivers consistent product manufacturing processes across all facilities.
- Our engineering services team – positioned at the heart of our operations – brings the latest manufacturing knowledge, skills and abilities to your product design projects.
Duplicated Equipment: While we have been using identical equipment within and across our facilities, the recent change is the way we are now managing our capacity – by better balancing workloads across our facilities.
What this means to you:
- Better controlled and open capacity to meet urgent customer demands.
- Shorter lead times.
- Lower risk of mistakes and rejects as manufacturing protocols and processes are identical from cell-to-cell and site-to-site.
- Mitigated risk through the ability to move projects among facilities in the event of a unexpected natural disaster or major equipment malfunction.
Consistent Training: Our recent culture survey results showed that employees were experiencing work challenges due to inconsistent or non-existent training practices, which prompted us to create a formal training team. Our corporate trainers developed several training modules, including new employee orientation, machine technology, Quick Response Manufacturing, 6S, servant leadership, safety, and more.
What this means to you:
- Training employees adds consistencies among our manufacturing processes by ensuring different equipment operators perform tasks in the same manner.
- Identical procedures enable us to incorporate consistent manufacturing processes company-wide.
- Employees are experiencing fewer challenges, while improving job satisfaction and achieving personal growth.
Expanding Automation (Robotics): By continuously adding automation capabilities into our manufacturing mix, we are able to incorporate greater consistency and reliability in our manufacturing processes, while also addressing the challenge of finding more skilled workers.
What this means to you:
- Our growing use of automation technology allows us to streamline manufacturing operations, where one individual can oversee the work of multiple robotic machining stations and meet our growing production needs.
- Gone are the days of “assembly line” work and repetitive motions previously inherent in manufacturing environments. Intuitive robotic technology is generating interest from young adults and students, helping us draw the attention of those who are considering a career in manufacturing.
As we move forward in our manufacturing capabilities, we will continue to evaluate our systems, services, and capacity, so we can adjust our operations and processes to better meet the needs of our customers.