Building Industry News

A new partnership between American Standard Brands and WaterAid seeks to save lives and improve access to safe sanitation in Bangladesh. Through their joint effort, hundreds of thousands of people in this developing country will receive a cost effective, sanitary toilet pan to help prevent the spread of disease and improve their standard of living.

“Our partnership with WaterAid plays a crucial role in raising the standard of safe sanitation in Bangladesh. We will be donating hundreds of thousands of our SaTo sanitary toilet pans to residents and institutions in Bangladesh, one for every Champion toilet sold here in North America,” said Jay Gould, president and CEO of American Standard Brands.

In parts of the world like Bangladesh, where fresh water is scarce and sewer infrastructure does not exist, open pit latrines allow disease to spread through direct and indirect contact with human waste. Globally, lack of access to safe sanitation facilities causes 2,000 deaths each day, mainly among children.

The SaTo (pronounced SAH-toh, derived from “Safe Toilet”) uses ingeniously simple mechanical and water seals that reduce the transmission of disease by closing off pit latrines from the open air. After eight months of development at the company’s New Product Design Center in Piscataway, N.J., successful field testing on the SaTo was completed in Bangladesh in early 2013. Users especially appreciated how the small amount of water retained after each use created an airtight seal that reduced odors, as well.

For more information on this announcement view the complete press release or email us.

Uponor North America (Uponor) has been named one of the Top 100 Workplaces in Minnesota, based on an employee-based survey project from the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune. Uponor was ranked 16th on the midsize company list.

Top Workplaces recognizes the most progressive companies in Minnesota based on employee opinions about organizational health, job expectations and employee engagement. The analysis included responses from more than 64,300 employees at Minnesota public, private and nonprofit organizations.

“This acknowledgement is about organizational health and employee engagement, so the biggest rewards are enjoyed every day by Uponorians working in a healthy and motivating environment,” says Jyri Luomakoski, Uponor president and CEO. “The team has not only improved the business, but also ensured that it is a place where people want to work, creating a sustainable base for continuous success.”

Published on June 16, the rankings in the Star Tribune Top 100 Workplaces are based on survey information collected by WorkplaceDynamics, an independent company specializing in employee engagement and retention. To qualify for the Star Tribune Top Workplaces, a company must have more than 50 employees in Minnesota. Nearly 1,900 companies were invited to participate. Rankings were composite scores calculated purely on the basis of employee responses.

Star Tribune Publisher Michael J. Klingensmith said, “The companies in the Star Tribune Top 100 Workplaces deserve high praise for creating the very best work environments in the state of Minnesota. My congratulations to each of these exceptional companies.”

Uponor North America President Bill Gray adds that the Star Tribune’s Top 100 Workplace recognition is a great honor. “This truly is a great place to work. The passion and dedication that our employees bring to work every single day is inspiring. I’m proud to work beside such a talented group of people.”

For more information, see: http://uponor.oreilly-depalma.com/2013/top-workplaces-us.shtml

Beginning in May, Uponor North America will be breaking ground at its headquarters facility in Apple Valley, Minn., to add 17,500 square feet of manufacturing space to help meet forecasted growth for crosslinked polyethylene (PEX) tubing for plumbing, fire sprinkler and radiant heating and cooling systems. This will be the fifth expansion for the 1990-built facility, bringing the total space to 230,000 square feet, which houses the North American corporate offices, manufacturing and Uponor Academy, the company’s onsite training center.

“We are projecting substantial growth for our PEX product in the commercial and residential markets for plumbing, fire sprinkler and radiant floor heating and cooling systems,” says Uponor North America President Bill Gray. “This expansion will allow us to continue our growth in the PEX marketplace and ensure we can meet current and future customer demand.”

The expansion, set to be complete by October 2013 with a planned occupancy date of late December, will also include 3,000 square feet of employee service areas, including an expanded lunch room, locker rooms, restrooms and outdoor seating. “We are a 24/7 operation, so we’re making PEX tubing every minute of every day,” says Rusty Callier, director of Operations at Uponor. “We want to make sure we have sufficient space to manufacture the tubing, as well as provide a positive and productive environment for the employees who are making the tubing.”

The company is not just expanding its footprint, but also its workforce. On April 18, the facility hosted an onsite job fair which brought in more than 60 candidates looking for manufacturing and maintenance positions. Additionally, the company was awarded the 2013 Manufacturer of the Year award from the Manufacturers Alliance, recognizing the company’s lean manufacturing operations and processes.

“This is an exciting time at Uponor,” says Callier. “We are not only expanding our facility and growing our workforce, but we are also being recognized by our peers in the manufacturing industry. It’s rewarding to be part of an organization that is continuing to invest in its future.”

For more information, visit http://uponor.oreilly-depalma.com/2013/na-expansion-us.shtml

On April 11, Uponor was honored as the 2013 Manufacturer of the Year in the large-company category by the Manufacturers Alliance, an association providing peer-to-peer training, education and resources which allow Midwest manufacturing companies to continuously grow, improve and stay competitive.

“We are honored to receive this recognition and award and are privileged to be part of the Manufacturers Alliance where we not only share our best practices, but where we also learn from others,” said Uponor North America President Bill Gray.

The event began with Apple Valley Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland presenting a Certificate of Commendation from Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton and a video from Senator Amy Klobuchar [D-MN] sending her congratulations and support to the manufacturing community. Last year, Klobuchar visited Uponor and took a tour of the manufacturing facility as part of her “Made in America” economic tour.

Uponor is a relative newcomer to the Manufacturers Alliance’s Manufacturer of the Year awards. In fact, last year was the first year the company was nominated and came in as runner-up. “I am excited for Uponor and for our employees,” said Rusty Callier, director of Operations. “This award validates what we have accomplished and will be used as a springboard to sustained success.”

The Manufacturers Alliance chose Uponor due to several lean and operational efficiencies the company had experienced in the past year, including:

• Improving Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) by 7.8%
• Decreasing Non-value Added (NVA) by 19%
• Decreasing scrap rate by 9%
• Decreasing Variable Production Cost (VPC) by 6.3%
• Improving lacquer lines changeover from three and a half hours to 10 minutes
• Improving pipe recoil changeover from 45 minutes to two minutes
• Best year for reducing severity and frequency of accidents
• Sharing lean processes with office personnel, resulting in a new product catalog lean process that reduced production costs by 21% and production time from 207 days to 30 days

On July 31, 2012, Uponor was asked to be one of two companies on the Manufacturers Alliance Tour of Excellence, to showcase its outstanding accomplishments in operational improvements. Topics included tier management, Continuous Improvement (CI) boards, A3 projects, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES).

“Our 2012 body of work has not only allowed us to make great strides in our business, but also in our belief that we are a learning organization that must invest in learning and benchmarking to stay competitive,” said Callier. “Through participating in Manufacturers Alliance training, holding training events and plant tours, hosting peer meetings and participating in numerous site visits set up through peer groups, we continue to learn from other Manufacturers Alliance members.”

For more information, please visit http://uponor.oreilly-depalma.com/2013/manufacturer-of-the-year-us.shtml  A special video regarding the award can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAfxnz07ZeA&feature=youtu.be