Lindsay Craven | The Yadkin Ripple
Brent Whitesides presents the Q1 Award plaque to Willard Martin, an employee at the Hamptonville Lydall plant for 39 years.
Lindsay Craven | The Yadkin Ripple
Brent Whitesides and Marcie Thompson, an employee at the Hamptonville Lydall plant for 38 years, hold the Q1 flag that was awarded to Lydall by Ford Motor Company.
Lindsay Craven | The Yadkin Ripple
Brent Whitesides presents Tim Ashburn, 24 years of service, and Jeff Vanek, 31 years of service, with the Yadkinville plant’s Q1 Award plaque.
Lydall’s Hamptonville and Yadkinville plants have something to celebrate.
Ford Motors has given the company a Q1 Award, which means the automaker recognizes Lydall as being an “exceptional provider of quality and delivery.”
The company celebrated on Sept. 12 by providing lunch for the plant’s workers and a plaque and flag raising ceremony.
“I couldn’t be prouder of everybody here for this accomplishment; this is significant,” said Joe Abbruzzi, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Lydall.
Q1 is the best that Lydall can receive in Ford’s supplier measurement system. In order to receive the Q1 Award, Lydall was measured by a manufacturing site assessment, quality and delivery, warranty performance and launch performance.
The award isn’t just about the prestige. It also means more opportunities for future growth for Lydall.
The Hamptonville Lydall location had previously received a Q1 Award but was stripped of it in 2010 after a combination of poor business practices and falling revenues, according to the Lydall CEO Dale Barnhart.
“We were disappointing our customers,” Barnhart said. “We lost our Q1 rating as we should have because we were not performing as we should. On top of that we were overworking our employees. So we had to step back and say what we are doing wrong and what should we be doing differently.”
Two years later the company has turned the business around and improved employee relations, increased profits steadily over the past four quarters and earned the Q1 Award once more.
This will be the first time that the Yadkinville plant has received a Q1 Award.
“During tough times most people die and most people wither away but one thing I can say is that you guys dug in and you turned things around and it’s showing today,” said Brent Whitesides, Senior Engineer for Ford VPO Interior strategy. “This Q1 Award means you are world class. You can tell people you are a world class supplier to Ford Motor Company right now.”
Senior employees at the individual plants were given the honor of accepting the plaque and raising the Q1 flag during the ceremony. Willard Martin, an employee of 39 years and Marcie Thompson an employee of 36 years were chosen to accept the honors at the Hamptonville location.
Tim Ashburn, an employee of 24 years, Kelli Johnson, an employee of 23 years and Jeff Vanek, an employee of 30 years, and Marcie Thompson, an employee of 36 years, were chosen to accept the honors for the Yadkinville location.
The entire staffs of the Hamptonville and Yadkinville locations were treated to a barbecue lunch while they were given a presentation by Abbruzzi about what this award meant to the company, how their hard work got them to that point and what they need to do to continue to grow.
“We’ve had outstanding performance improvement,” said Abbruzzi. “In order to continue with this improvement we have to focus on our safety, employee development, following processes and the rules that are set up. We have to do these things or we’re going to fall back and we’re not going to allow ourselves to do that. We’ve all worked too hard to get to where we are.”
Several other individuals showed up to show their support for the plant’s accomplishments. Kevin Austin, chairman for the Yadkin County Commissioners; Bobby Todd, executive director for the Yadkin County Chamber of Commerce; and Hubert Gregory, mayor of Yadkinville were all in attendance at the ceremonies.
The Hamptonville Lydall location currently employs 321 people in the Fibers division and 305 people in the Metals division. The Lydall location at Yadkinville currently employs 133 people.
Reach Lindsay Craven at 679-2341 or at lcraven@heartlandpublications.com.
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