Mubea utilizes an employee incentive program, Idea Management, to encourage employees to identify process improvements within its seven plants in the Florence area.
Melanie Kleindienst, John Callen, Brett Blackmore, Phil Kidd, Karina Aquino, Nate Chischilly, Matt Hayes, Mubea North America CEO Doug Cain, Travis Walker, Alicia Motomura, and Brian Blanton (Photo provided)
Improvement ideas can involve safety, quality, ergonomics, equipment, processes, and much more. Employees identify potential improvements and submit ideas into the program, which are then reviewed by plant committees to determine if the ideas are feasible for implementation.
Mubea pays employees for their ideas.
Mubea’s Stabilizer Bars plant, 6800 Industrial Blvd., was fighting issues that made it difficult to meet customer demand. At every turn, the plant found problems that caused the employees to feel defeated.
A team of five employees came together and submitted an idea that could potentially eliminate the issues that the plant was up against. The team was comprised of Phil Kidd, Nate Chischilly, John Callen, Karina Aquino, and Matt Hayes.
The original design of the tooling was making a circular hole in the stabilizer bar oblong versus round. This required rework in order to meet the bar specifications.
The team suggested, through the Idea Management program, to design a new tool that would correct these issues. The team received pushback from the German tool shop and were told that this could not be done.
The Stabilizer Bars team was adamant that this task was possible, and with support from plant management turned the idea into reality. The new design proved to be a success, and the team saved Mubea $121,394.
Mubea presented this team of five employees with a check for $12,139.
Mubea relies on programs like Idea Management to keep employees engaged in making Mubea a better company and a better place to work.
Mubea manufactures automotive components, such as springs, hose clamps, and stabilizer bars and began operating in Kentucky in 1982. Most recently, the company opened a state-of-the-art tailored rolled blank advanced manufacturing facility in 2013 – the first of its kind in North America. In total, Mubea employs 10,500 worldwide, including 1,400 in Florence.
Mubea North America
