NORTH AMERICAN ASSEMBLIES, LLC
FLORENCE, SOUTH CAROLINA

THE OVERVIEW
The Florence facility of North American Assemblies (NAA) has been in South Carolina only two years, but has already grown to 27 employees who provide contract manufacturing capacity for tire and wheel assemblies for Honda’s Power Sports division, located just a few miles away. NAA also provides sequencing, logistics, procurement, materials resource planning (MRP), repair services, materials management, and warehousing. Power Sports manufactures all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and personal watercraft. NAA’s parent corporation is Tag Holdings, who owns a diverse collection of manufacturing and service-based enterprises and is headquartered in Troy, Michigan.

NAA’s mission is to become the region’s supplier of choice for quality- and delivery-critical contract manufacturing, assembly and associated logistical services. It plans to succeed by consistently meeting customers’ needs more effectively and economically than its competition. The company plans to branch out over the next year and add other automotive customers. Tag Holdings is currently one of the nation’s top 15 minority manufacturers.

THE CHALLENGE
The main challenge facing NAA’s facility is the lack of workers trained and skilled in automotive technologies, as the Pee Dee area is historically a textile and agrarian workforce. Hand in hand with that, Scott Culberson, general manager of NAA, says historically the region has lacked a central forum of well-organized collaboration between area manufacturers in lean manufacturing practices and other areas of technological development.

THE SOLUTION
Culberson had worked with SCMEP in his last 10 years in the Upstate of South Carolina, most specifically as a participant in the Upstate Lean Alliance, a group spearheaded and coordinated by SCMEP and made up of area manufacturers who collectively focus their research and training in lean manufacturing techniques and share best practices. Working with Joe Jacobs, SCMEP manufacturing specialist, and Todd Taylor, Honda’s quality manager, Culberson helped form the Pee Dee Lean Alliance. So far, the group has 10 member companies who meet regularly and share best practices; the projection is to have 20 companies by the end of 2006.

THE IMPACT
SCMEP has been able to secure grant funds that enabled NAA and the rest of the Lean Alliance to participate in a combination lean manufacturing and theory of constraints training class. Due to SCMEP’s direct coaching, Culberson credits NAA’s recent increase in productivity in the last quarter to SCMEP – a one-third productivity increase with no outlay of capital from the company. “That put this little company from the red to black,” Culberson says.

“I have seen the power of collaboration,” he says. He stresses how pleased he is at NAA’s resulting robust growth while other small manufacturers are hanging on. Last year, his facility showed $2 million revenue from assembly operations; within the next year, he expects to see that jump to $60 million through special partnering arrangements being made with Honda.

What’s on the horizon? More training coming up from SCMEP and the Pee Dee Lean Alliance. “We have great minds and a tremendous work ethic in the Pee Dee region,” Culberson says. “The key thing we need to do is instill automotive philosophies and additional training for our workers. We’re meeting people where they’re at.”