Second Annual Harbour Auto Industry Award Winners

TROY, Mich., Sept. 1 -- Harbour Consulting today announced the recipients of the 2004 Harbour Awards for manufacturing excellence. President Ron Harbour introduced the winners as part of a presentation at the Society of Automotive Analysts' inaugural Strategic Planning Summit here.

  2004 Harbour Award winners:

   Category            Plant                         Location
   Vehicle Assembly    Nissan Smyrna                 Smyrna, Tenn.
   Engine              Toyota West Virginia          Buffalo, W. Va.
   Transmission        GM Toledo                     Toledo, Ohio
   Stamping            DaimlerChrysler Belvidere     Belvidere, Ill.

Harbour Consulting considered a number of factors during the selection process in the vehicle assembly, engine and transmission categories, but placed most emphasis on the number of hours spent per unit to produce a vehicle and/or component. The Harbour Award winner in the stamping category was selected on the overall performance of the operation. Performance criteria considered for stamping plants included the number of parts produced per hour and stamping die change time.

"Manufacturing skill and efficiency is a definite competitive advantage in today's hyper competitive automotive industry and each of these plants sets the benchmark in their respective categories," Harbour said. "Their success can be directly attributed to a deep commitment to producing world-class quality products. Improved quality leads to a decrease in repairs and necessary overtime, which improves the overall productivity of a plant. Such manufacturing efficiencies and quality results also help protect work from moving overseas."

Harbour cited these plants' flexibility as a key factor in their ability to achieve greater efficiencies and reduce costs in their manufacturing systems. More flexibility usually means greater use and reuse of common equipment and tooling, as well as common build processes and manufacturing processes. These common systems can provide even bigger capital cost savings -- up to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. They also make it easier to execute quality initiatives.

"Studies have shown that plants with greater flexibility generally have had more successful new vehicle launches, including lower costs and at higher quality levels than previously attained," Harbour said. "In addition, if an improvement is made, the idea can be applied almost immediately across all plants because the processes are all the same."

Since 1989, Harbour Consulting has provided manufacturing management consulting services focused on strengthening the overall competitiveness of manufacturers through improvements in quality, productivity and lower total cost. The company continues to study and service manufacturing organizations throughout the world in a variety of industries. Its annually published "The Harbour Report" serves as the influential scorecard for manufacturers in the automotive industry.