Schneider Electric facility wins Top Plant award

Plant Engineering magazine has recognized the Schneider Electric North American Operating Division Square D molded case circuit breaker manufacturing facility in Columbia, Mo., as a winner of its Top Plant award . The fifth annual Top Plant award is a yearly honor bestowed to exceptional industrial plants that effectively utilize the plant engineering function to achieve superior operational results.

In addition to manufacturing Square D molded case circuit breakers for commercial and industrial applications, the Columbia facility also does stamping and plating for sister plants. Square D is the flagship brand of the Schneider Electric North American Operating Division and is the market-leading brand of electrical distribution and industrial control products, systems and services. The Columbia plant’s product portfolio has been transformed during the last three years, which has included moving 13 production lines into the plant, starting a new QOM2 automated production cell and starting up two automation lines associated with the production of Powerpact H&J.

Despite 60% of the plant’s associates having different job functions due to the product transfers, the Columbia facility has increased its annual variable cost productivity by 11.6% since 2004.
The facility also has seen tremendous improvements in employee safety, such as decreasing its medical incident rate (MIR) from 12.11 in 1996 to 0.93 in 2009, which is well below the industry MIR average of 5.2. Schneider Electric’s Safety Leader program has had a significant emphasis on safety measure improvements, as the plant to date has more than 2.7 million hours and 1,550 days worked with a lost-time incident.

Read the full story about this Top Plant award.

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