PPG Total Service Solutions Wins Chemicals Management Programs AT Three GM Facilities

TROY, Mich., July 2 -- PPG Total Service Solutions was recently awarded chemicals management programs at the General Motors Corp.'s Wentzville, Mo., Oklahoma City and Janesville, Wis. assembly plants to help the automaker reduce total costs associated with managing indirect chemicals and product vendors. Initial implementation of the programs began in May.

At each site, PPG Total Service Solutions provides GM with a full-time, on-site chemicals management staff, including a chemical manager who acts as a single point of contact and supervises the tier two product vendors. The team is responsible for purchasing and managing all indirect chemicals used in the coatings application process -- such as lubricants, paint detackification, janitorial chemicals, water treatment products and solvents -- as well as developing and implementing process improvement projects.

"With the extensive chemicals management knowledge of our employees, the PPG Total Service Solutions team is assisting these sites in reducing chemical costs through product efficiency, decreased maintenance and energy costs and increased throughput," said Scott A. Follett, global director, PPG Total Service Solutions.

In addition to reducing total costs, the programs allow each facility to focus on its core competencies, resulting in greater attention to imperatives such as product quality and enabling implementation of industry best practices.

PPG Total Service Solutions and GM pioneered a chemicals management program at the automaker's Shreveport, La. plant in 1991. PPG Total Service Solutions has chemical management program contracts with 11 GM facilities throughout North America -- six of which were renewed earlier this year.

According to Follett, PPG supplies all the coatings and major chemicals required for the painting application process for the Janesville and Wentzville plants.

The only program of its kind to be offered by a global coatings supplier, PPG Total Service Solutions assists manufacturers with implementing turn-key outsourcing programs, such as chemical and fluid management, process management and logistics. In addition, the team offers booth maintenance chemicals, paint detackification products, purge solvents and paint line cleaners and can provide the personnel to launch and implement these products and processes.

PPG Total Service Solutions -- based in Troy, Mich. -- is a leader in providing manufacturers with a cost-effective structured management program that assists in the implementation of a global standard for service.

Pittsburgh-based PPG is the world's leading manufacturer of transportation coatings and a major global supplier of industrial and packaging coatings, and a leading North American producer of architectural coatings. In addition, PPG manufactures flat and fabricated glass, continuous-strand fiber glass and chemicals. Sales were US$8.1 billion for 2002.