General Cable's Jackson, Tennessee, Manufacturing Facility Receives IndustryWeek's Best Plants Award
AS ONE OF THE BEST MANUFACTURING PLANTS IN NORTH AMERICA
Highland Heights, Kentucky – General Cable’s Jackson, Tennessee, manufacturing facility, which produces a complete line of GenSPEED® Brand data communications cables, has been selected by Penton Media's INDUSTRYWEEK magazine, the leading publication among senior manufacturing executives, as one of the Best Plants in North America. INDUSTRYWEEK’S Best Plants Award Program, which started 24 years ago, is an annual salute to outstanding manufacturing facilities across all industries that are on the leading-edge of efforts to increase competitiveness, enhance customer satisfaction, and create stimulating and rewarding work environments.
INDUSTRYWEEK’S annual Best Plants competition evaluates manufacturing facilities in multiple management practice and plant performance categories, including: quality, customer and supplier relations, employee involvement, productivity, cost containment, manufacturing flexibility and responsiveness, inventory management, environmental and safety performance, and market results.  The selected manufacturers demonstrate excellence in these categories and are chosen due to the fact that they strive for perfection and never ease up on their efforts to improve.
In the “Best Plants” feature article that appears in INDUSTRYWEEK’s January issue, the magazine editor, Jill Jusko, said, "Manufacturing excellence is alive and well in North America. Remarkable manufacturing facilities with remarkable team members and leaders are delivering remarkable results. They are doing so in the face of intense global competition, increasing cost pressure and ever-more demanding customers. They are doing so even as the bar is raised for what defines excellence.”
General Cable’s Jackson plant will receive a commemorative award from Jill Jusko during ceremonies scheduled for February 19, 2014. This honor recognizes the plant’s world-class manufacturing capabilities and its commitment to continuous improvement.
“General Cable is once again pleased to receive this award from INDUSTRYWEEK in recognition of our manufacturing excellence,” said Greg Lampert, President and Chief Executive Officer of General Cable Americas. “We use the INDUSTRYWEEK competition as a benchmark for comparing our manufacturing performance against the best in the North America. I would like to commend Mark Thackeray, General Cable’s Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing and North American Operations; Joe Brown, Jackson’s Plant Manager; and their respective teams; for setting aggressive goals and providing the tools and training for our associates to achieve them.”
“Lean Manufacturing, combined with Six Sigma quality improvement tools, continues to drive major improvements in all our manufacturing operations,” added Mark Thackeray. “Our strategy to achieve manufacturing excellence has made General Cable a much stronger company today. Lean thinking is part of our culture of continuous improvement, along with the engagement and contribution of our associates who share responsibility for Jackson’s competitiveness in an Operator-Led work environment.” Â
Since 2001, General Cable has had 12 plants selected as finalists in INDUSTRYWEEK’s Best Plants competition. Ten (10) of those plants have gone on to achieve the title of one of the Best Plants in North America. They are Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 2003 and 2009; Moose Jaw, Canada, in 2005; Tetla, Mexico, in 2006; Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2007; Manchester, New Hampshire, in 2008; Piedras Negras, Mexico, in 2009; Franklin, Massachusetts, in 2010; Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and Lincoln, Rhode Island, in 2012; and now, Jackson, Tennessee, in 2013. This achievement recognizes General Cable’s world-class manufacturing capabilities, as well as the mindset of continuous improvement shared by all of the company’s associates worldwide.
“Through associate engagement and ownership, we strive to exceed customers’ expectations by producing quality products with outstanding on-time delivery and providing value that leads to growing customer confidence and expanded partnerships for ongoing business,” said Joe Brown. "This award recognizes the hard work and dedication of all the associates in Jackson who have changed this facility around with a focus on continuous improvement in order to exceed expectations. We are very proud of our accomplishments and to be recognized with this prestigious INDUSTRYWEEK Best Plants Award."
The complete list of winners and an in-depth profile on General Cable’s Jackson, Tennessee, data communications plant may be found at http://www.industryweek.com/resources/best-plants.
General Cable (NYSE: BGC), a Fortune 500 Company headquartered in Highland Heights, Kentucky U.S.A., is a global leader in the development, design, manufacture, marketing and distribution of aluminum, copper and fiber optic wire and cable products for the energy, construction, industrial, specialty and communications markets. It operates 57 manufacturing facilities in 26 countries and employs more than 14,000 associates. Visit our Web site at www.GeneralCable.com.
