Many manufacturers talk about being green. But, when it comes to action, few companies can match International Business Machines Corp. (IBM). Big Blue's High-End Server Plant in Poughkeepsie, NY, which has focused its efforts on a variety of lean and green initiatives, is the recipient of the 2008 Assembly Plant of the Year award.
“The marketplace has been very receptive to these products,” says King, who has been with IBM for more than 20 years. As a result, his plant is booming with activity. It currently operates three shifts a day, seven days a week. To keep up with the demand generated by the new products, the plant has recently hired additional assemblers.
More than 6,000 people work on the Poughkeepsie campus to develop and manufacture high-end servers. In addition to the 700 people who work in the factory, the site includes numerous R&D labs, engineering offices and customer support centers.
Manufacturing is colocated with hardware development labs. “This is important, because we’re able to act as one team-development, manufacturing and engineering-in terms of bringing new products to market at the frequency required to compete and lead in this market segment,” says Warren Boldrin, manager of advanced manufacturing sciences.
“We are responsible for a significant portion of the hardware in IBM’s portfolio, and this serves as an important aspect of the complete IBM solution,” claims Boldrin. “Servers range from several hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars per order. As such, each order has the potential to represent a substantial impact on the company’s financial performance. Given the revenue implications associated with each and every order, this plant operates with complete focus on having an order shipped on-time with superior quality, at a cost which represents value to our customers.”
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