DELPHI PACKARD Plant marks grand opening

The Vienna plant is innovative and lean, Delphi Packard officials said.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
VIENNA -- Delphi Packard Electric Systems is proud of its 4-year-old Cortland plastics plant, but officials say its new $58 million plant in Vienna is even better.
"It's bringing never-before-seen levels of quality, on-time deliveries and cost-competitiveness to the industry," said John Sefcik, Packard's director of U.S. operations.
The Warren-based maker of electrical and electronic parts for cars and other products opened the plant in September but held a grand opening today. The plant is in Aero Park, an industrial park off Ridge Road being developed by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
Gov. Bob Taft was on hand for the events today. Jim Spencer, Packard president, thanked the governor for the state's assistance, which included a $5 million loan and grants totaling $450,000.
The Cortland plant is being used as a model for Delphi's plastic injection plants around the world, Sefcik said. But the Vienna plant has added even more advanced presses and lean manufacturing processes, he said.
Packard has been investing heavily in area plants to increase quality and efficiency.
Central to plans
A key to this effort is Packard's plastic molding operations, which used to be housed on Dana Street in Warren. Old machines that were housed in a building without air conditioning led to high defect rates at the plant.
The operation was moved to Vienna and Cortland, where Packard spent $42 million to remodel an abandoned plant.
The plastic parts are connectors for electrical systems for vehicles but also for other products, such as appliances.
The new precision presses at the local plants also allow Packard to produce higher-quality parts. Defect rates at Dana Street were in the hundreds of parts per million. Packard officials said earlier this year that the Cortland plant had a defect rate of three parts per million, while Vienna's rate was less than one part per million.
With high-tech presses and automated vehicles that deliver parts, Packard has been able to increase productivity with fewer workers. The new plants employ 350, compared with about 400 at the Dana Street operation.
Local work force declining
Packard's overall work force has been dropping in the Mahoning Valley in recent years as local operations become focused on running machines that pump out high-volume parts. More labor-intensive operations have been sent to other locations, including Mexico.
Locally, Packard has about 3,900 hourly workers, compared with 8,600 in 1995. The cutbacks have come through attrition as workers retired.
In the past few years, Packard's salaried staff in the area has been cut by about 500 to about 1,300.
Packard is part of Delphi Corp., which is based in Troy, Mich., and is the world's largest automotive supplier.
Packard's area operations now focus on plastic injection molding, metal stamping and cable making.
The metal stamping operations are in the midst of a $15 million upgrade. Older presses are being improved, and new ones are being installed.
The number of presses is being reduced from 64 to 48, although production is being kept the same. The operation churns out about 9.7 billion pieces a year.