Customer Demand for Custom Manufacturing Drives Second United Plastics Group Site in Monterrey, Mexico

OAK BROOK, Ill., and MONTERREY, NL, Mexico, March 6 -- United Plastics Group, Inc. (UPG) today inaugurated its second Monterrey, Mexico facility in response to a dramatic rise in demand by Fortune 100, tier one automotive and consumer product customers for full-service custom manufacturing. The quality of production at the company's first Monterrey plant was one contributor to the upswing in orders. An equally important second driver was customer appreciation for the overall cost effectiveness of Mexican production close to US supply chain logistics.

"The kind of quality work that delights customers requires good equipment, but it especially requires good people. In this respect, Monterrey has proven to be an ideal site for us," said Richard R. Harris, CEO. "It offers a well-educated work force in a modern industrial setting with many advantages, allowing us to deliver high quality components to customers at low cost."

The company has just ended a record year for earnings, the second consecutive year of positive growth. Overall there has been strong growth for complex product and component assembly, a key capability of the new Monterrey facility.

The new 53,000 square foot plant joins UPG facilities in Mexico, China, Europe and the US, coordinated through an advanced project management system out of corporate headquarters. This system includes Web-based collaboration and monitoring. The new plant's first products rolled out the door in late Q4, 2005 and the facility is slated for custom production of consumer, medical, automotive and electronics components in 2006.

UPG attributes the success of its Mexican assembly services in large part to rigorous recruitment, effective programs for employee retention, and extensive training in team problem-solving, individual work skills and overall Six Sigma continuous improvement.

"Our objective is global manufacturing on the highest levels, using lean manufacturing facilities that can move quickly on new projects, no matter how complex," said Thomas Cho, vice president of operations. "For the second Monterrey facility, we were able to apply startup methodologies and resources developed at headquarters, supplemented by an experienced core team from the first Monterrey plant. Doing so allowed us to build on a strong foundation of success to deliver quality product, using proven processes and managed by highly qualified people."

This ability to assimilate new projects quickly is aided by the plant's layout, tuned for value-added secondary operations, assembly and molding. Assembly operations take up about half of the production space, in an area that can be configured within hours into the intensive, product-specific cell arrangements favored by lean manufacturing.

The remaining half of the plant features 27 thermoplastic injection molding machines ranging from 28-500 tons, in an array ideal for any level of processing, from low-volume custom molding to high-volume commodity production. Automated systems quickly deliver molding compound to the presses, enabling extremely high throughput.

To develop talent in this plant as well as in its first Monterrey facility, United Plastics Group works closely with the Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, which many feel is the best technical school in Mexico. Monterrey itself has continued to grow rapidly as an important industrial center in Mexico, where its closeness to the border additionally provides logistical advantages to US companies.

Because UPG is on a growth curve in Mexico, it is able to attract and retain personnel whose skills and dedication dovetail with UPG's quality initiatives. "UPG has shown a good understanding of what it means to manufacture in Mexico," said Alberto Oba, director of sales for Mexico. "We work in close synchronization with HQ as part of a rich network of resources that are shared and monitored globally. We're able to get support at any time to ensure our alignment with the needs of global customers for on-time delivery of low-cost product."

About UPG

United Plastics Group, Inc. ( http://www.unitedplasticsgroup.com/ ) is a full service manufacturer of precision plastics products and value-added services for the consumer, medical, automotive, electronics and industrial market segments. UPG operates lean manufacturing, ISO/TS16949:2002 registered facilities in the United States, Mexico, Europe and China.