We are delighted to congratulate Pratt & Whitney North Berwick Parts Center (North Berwick), located in North Berwick, Maine, for being named a 2015 Best Plants Award Winner by Industry Week. The award is among the most coveted by manufacturers.
A provider of jet engine components, North Berwick is a leading example of the renaissance of American manufacturing. Once facing potential closure, the massive plant has become a jewel among Pratt & Whitney facilities, having undertaken a major transformation to place it at the forefront of production of parts and modules for the latest generation of jet engines.
Key to the effort at North Berwick was promoting parts development at the facility; according to Michael Papp, General Manager at the plant, this provides “a leg up” when bidding for manufacturing contracts. Another enhancement involved improving the environment in which designers and manufacturing engineers work together collaboratively on a daily basis.
Among the plant’s achievements:
- A 20% percent reduction in in-plant defect rate occurred during the past 3 years
- 35% of the plant’s production consisted of new or redesigned products introduced in the previous 12 months
North Berwick’s use of iBase-t’s Solumina was a contributing factor in their transformation, helping to improve manufacturing productivity, quality, and compliance by giving operators, supervisors, and every plant manager visibility from the shop floor to the top floor. The result? A highly cost-competitive facility for aerospace manufacturing that provides exceptional quality, ethics, safety, and delivery as-promised.
According to Papp, North Berwick’s mission, above all, is to pass the plant onto to the next generation. The Industry Week Award is just one more reason we have no doubt they’ll be successful in achieving this goal.
