Firstronic's Grand Rapids, Michigan Facility Named a 2016 IndustryWeek Best Plant

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Firstronic's Grand Rapids, Michigan facility has been named a 2016 IndustryWeek Best Plant. Established in 1990, the IndustryWeek Best Plants Awards program annually recognizes plants, located in North America, that are on the leading edge of efforts to increase competitiveness, enhance customer satisfaction and create stimulating and rewarding work environments. Its further goal is to encourage other manufacturing managers and work teams to emulate the honorees by adopting world-class practices, technologies and improvement strategies. The competition includes an application process and an audit of finalist facilities.

"We are ecstatic about winning an award that has traditionally been very difficult for contract manufacturers to win, given the challenge of adapting processes to suit customer preferences. We feel this award specifically recognizes the fact that our holistic approach to Lean manufacturing provides industry-leading metrics in quality, productivity and throughput across every program. We also feel it recognizes the efforts we’ve made to develop a highly-trained, engaged team of manufacturing associates. I am once again extremely proud of the ability of our team to perform at this award-winning level," said John Sammut, Firstronic's President & CEO.

Firstronic’s industry leading metrics include a first pass yield of 99.75 percent, a standard order-to-delivery rate of 2 days and an average of days of inventory (raw material, WIP and finished goods) of 15.6 days.

Firstronic was the only electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider winning an award in this year's competition. The other winning plants were Intertape Polymer Group Inc., Danville, Virginia; Johnson Controls, Optima Plant, Cienega de Flores, Nuevo Leon, Mexico; L.B. Foster Threaded Products, Magnolia, Texas; Maclean-Fogg Metform Group, Savanna, Illinois; and UTC Aerospace Systems – Aerostructures, Foley, Alabama.

The IndustryWeek Best Plants Award winners will be honored during a ceremony at the 2017 IW Manufacturing & Technology Conference & Expo, where they also will share their stories of operational excellence. The event is May 8-10 in Cleveland, Ohio. More information on the competition and event is available here.

About Firstronic LLC

Firstronic LLC (www.firstronic.com) provides advanced electronics manufacturing services and optimized supply chain solutions for companies in a wide range of industries including automotive, industrial and medical device. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, MI, Firstronic has a 35,000 square foot facility, state-of-the-art equipment and a seasoned management team with an average tenure of 20 years and a 70,000 square foot facility in Juarez, Mexico. It also supports companies needing access to global manufacturing locations via operations in China, India and the Czech Republic.