The Huntington, Ind., manufacturing campus of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems received the 2014 KB-Truck Knorr Excellence Award, given by the Munich, Germany-based Knorr-Bremse (KB) Group at its world meeting in March. Bendix is a member of KB, the leading worldwide supplier of pneumatic braking and related safety systems for commercial vehicle and railroad applications.
Each year, KB awards two locations – one in its rail business segment and one in its truck business segment – the Knorr Excellence recognition for outstanding achievement within the Knorr Excellence (KE) business metrics. KB’s truck business segment consists of 18 facilities globally. Performance categories included in the KE metrics are:
- Business – total sales, sales per employee, return on sales, working capital
- Customer – customer returns, cost of product quality, delivery performance
- People – turnover rate, absenteeism rate
- Society – workplace accidents, energy efficiency
- Supplier – supplier quality, material savings
Bendix, the North American leader in the development and manufacture of leading-edge active safety and braking system technologies for commercial vehicles, opened its Huntington location in February 1980. The campus consists of four manufacturing and assembly facilities, as well as Bendix’s primary North American distribution center. More than 450 employees shape the plant’s success.
“We are very honored and excited to be named the top plant among all of KB’s world-class truck facilities. It’s a great achievement for the entire plant and the result of a true team effort from every area of our business,” said Fred Stevens, interim plant manager for Bendix at Huntington. “We are focused on driving continuous improvement that starts with our shop-floor management process and carries through everything we do every day to achieve our goals. Everybody has to work together to make that happen.”
Huntington’s plant manager, Mike Pogorelc, is currently completing a short-term international assignment for KB.
In addition to the KB award, work done at the Huntington campus has been recognized by high-profile commercial vehicle manufacturers. Most recently, in 2014, the operation received prestigious quality manufacturing awards from PACCAR – maker of Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks – and Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), which builds vehicles under the Freightliner, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses nameplates.
