Carlyle Compressor Facility Named Top North American Plant by IndustryWeek

IndustryWeek magazine named Carrier Corporation’s Carlyle Compressor Stone Mountain facility one of the 10 best plants in North America. Winners of the 2009 Best Plant competition are selected based on performance metrics as well as dedication to continually improving people, processes and performance. This is the second consecutive year that a Carrier facility has been named an IndustryWeek Best Plant. Carrier Corp. is a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX).

“Despite possibly the roughest economic conditions many have faced, this year’s winners continued to pursue excellence in manufacturing that results from strong leadership, an engaged workforce and outstanding operational and improvement strategies. Their leading-edge efforts to increase competitiveness, enhance customer satisfaction, and create stimulating work environments are to be applauded,” said Jill Jusko, IndustryWeek Best Plants director.

Ray Moncini, senior vice president, Carrier Operations, said, “It is a tremendous honor to receive this acknowledgement. It confirms our teams’ commitment to excellence in continued improvement in manufacturing and exceeding customer expectations.”

Carlyle’s award application detailed its accomplishments in delivering value to their customers through on-time delivery, product safety, reliability and quality at a competitive cost. The facility was selected for its manufacturing and supply chain flexibility that allow the plant to effectively respond to customer needs while minimizing costly waste, such as long customer lead-times and inventory. In the past three years, Carlyle has reduced scrap/rework costs by 55 percent, raw material inventory by 58 percent, customer reject rates by 76 percent and recordable injury cases by 54 percent.

“Our continuous improvement initiatives are a way of doing business. We utilize formal customer feedback tools to gain alignment on our efforts to satisfy customers’ needs,” stated Matt Walker, plant manager, Carlyle Stone Mountain. “I am very proud of our team’s achievement.”

Located just outside of Atlanta’s perimeter in the city of Stone Mountain, the Carlyle facility manufactures new and remanufactures a variety of reciprocating and screw compressors, servicing a wide variety of refrigeration markets, including commercial air-conditioning, transportation food safety, industrial chillers/ water-heating, supermarket refrigeration racks and marine applications.

Carlyle will be honored at the 2010 IndustryWeek Best Plant conference slated for April 19-21, 2010, in Cleveland, Ohio.