Amador County – A three-decade Amador County company, EMCO High Voltage Corporation, cut the ribbon on a new manufacturing facility in Sutter Creek Friday, and about 60 people attended.
EMCO opened a state-of-the-art facility at 11710 Commerce Drive, and Sales and Marketing Director Kim Bailey said about 50-plus staff members work there now, though the factory could have 45-50 employees working per shift.
CEO and President Mike Dougherty said EMCO is a “lean” and flexible manufacturing operation, complete with the latest in “green technology,” including a 25 kilowatt photovoltaic solar powered system that operates the company completely off the grid.
Program Manager Mike Janto said the factory has batteries to run for 8 hours, if the 115 solar panels on the roof aren’t getting enough light. It also has two generators as backup power.
Janto said The Solar Company of Ione put in a system that “allows us to operate 100 percent off the grid, very, very reliably.” He said bringing the factory was the easy part, but the hard part was making it a reliable tool.
Dougherty said “this was an empty shell just six months ago,” and Chris Fuller is the landlord. He said Tom Blackman brokered the deal. He introduced Ryck Johnson, formerly with Hewlitt Packard, who recently joined EMCO, and Barb Havens, who heads up a new Minden manufacturing facility. Dougherty said the two new facilities in Sutter Creek and Minden have gone from idea to reality in 12 months, and will be among four EMCO factories, the others in Oregon and New Mexico.
Ryck Johnson, director of manufacturing and engineering, said they ship directly from the factory, and work to be a “lean company.” He said the “manufacturing facility is a significant investment for EMCO.”
Janto said “lean manufacturing” means that “any time you hold a product, it costs you.” They don’t process material until they get an order, and partially build some products. So “instead of pushing products out the front door, you are creating a vacuum at the back door.”
He led a tour of the facility, which makes miniature high voltage power supplies for many different products, including such items as element detectors, night vision goggles, and PC boards. He said the products are ordered from catalogs.
The work stations are completely mobile, he said, so they “could put 45-50 operators in here on a single shift.” He showed areas where products are prepared, cured, cleaned up and labeled, and either go out or go on the shelf.
Janto said they try for same-day delivery, and if they need to build an order, try to cut down delivery time to two weeks. He said “the name of the game is whoever can build and deliver it quickest gets the sale.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Monday, 18 July 2011 06:11
EMCO cuts ribbon on Sutter Creek manufacturing facility, with 50 employees, and room for triple that
Written by Tom-
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Amador County – A three-decade Amador County company, EMCO High Voltage Corporation, cut the ribbon on a new manufacturing facility in Sutter Creek Friday, and about 60 people attended.
EMCO opened a state-of-the-art facility at 11710 Commerce Drive, and Sales and Marketing Director Kim Bailey said about 50-plus staff members work there now, though the factory could have 45-50 employees working per shift.
CEO and President Mike Dougherty said EMCO is a “lean” and flexible manufacturing operation, complete with the latest in “green technology,” including a 25 kilowatt photovoltaic solar powered system that operates the company completely off the grid.
Program Manager Mike Janto said the factory has batteries to run for 8 hours, if the 115 solar panels on the roof aren’t getting enough light. It also has two generators as backup power.
Janto said The Solar Company of Ione put in a system that “allows us to operate 100 percent off the grid, very, very reliably.” He said bringing the factory was the easy part, but the hard part was making it a reliable tool.
Dougherty said “this was an empty shell just six months ago,” and Chris Fuller is the landlord. He said Tom Blackman brokered the deal. He introduced Ryck Johnson, formerly with Hewlitt Packard, who recently joined EMCO, and Barb Havens, who heads up a new Minden manufacturing facility. Dougherty said the two new facilities in Sutter Creek and Minden have gone from idea to reality in 12 months, and will be among four EMCO factories, the others in Oregon and New Mexico.
Ryck Johnson, director of manufacturing and engineering, said they ship directly from the factory, and work to be a “lean company.” He said the “manufacturing facility is a significant investment for EMCO.”
Janto said “lean manufacturing” means that “any time you hold a product, it costs you.” They don’t process material until they get an order, and partially build some products. So “instead of pushing products out the front door, you are creating a vacuum at the back door.”
He led a tour of the facility, which makes miniature high voltage power supplies for many different products, including such items as element detectors, night vision goggles, and PC boards. He said the products are ordered from catalogs.
The work stations are completely mobile, he said, so they “could put 45-50 operators in here on a single shift.” He showed areas where products are prepared, cured, cleaned up and labeled, and either go out or go on the shelf.
Janto said they try for same-day delivery, and if they need to build an order, try to cut down delivery time to two weeks. He said “the name of the game is whoever can build and deliver it quickest gets the sale.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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