Company Profile Fork Lift Trucks
We looked at a warehouse layout and traced the travel path. Then we looked at carrying, walking, sitting, picking, changing aisles, data input, resting, loading...
shows the enormous footprint occupied by Crown’s New Bremen manufacturing plants, several of them clustered together and others in outlying areas.
LOCAL INVESTMENT Tim Quellhorst Lew Manci
As the town’s fortunes ebbed and flowed over the years, Crown, a privately-held company, never failed to invest locally. As high street properties fell vacant, Crown purchased them, restored them and brought them back into life as either offices or guest apartments – there’s even a shop just selling its own branded apparel. When the nearby Huffy bicycle factory became available, Crown also snapped it up. To help preserve the slice of heritage it had acquired, the Bicycle Museum of America was established in New Bremen following the acquisition of a renowned collection of bikes in Chicago. Featuring over 300 models dating from the 19th Century, the Museum is the town’s focal point for visitors Crown was founded by two brothers, the late Carl H. Dicke and Allen A. Dicke in 1945. Carl’s son and chairman emeritus, James F. Dicke, joined Crown later in the same year. His son, James F. Dicke II, is the current chairman and CEO. The latter’s son, James F. Dicke III, serves as the company president, thus becoming the fourth generation of the Dicke family to hold this position. Back in the 1940s, Crown manufactured
thermostatic controls for home coal burning furnaces. In the 1950s, with the public’s growing interest in television, the company made its move into the production of antenna rotators, a product used to enhance television reception. Crown became a leading manufacturer of these units until 2001 when it ceased production after a prolonged decline in worldwide demand.
REPAIR & MAINTENACE
Beginning in the 1960s, Crown diversified into the repair and manufacture of mechanical and electronic components for private industry and government, and made the move into lift truck manufacturing.
www.shdlogistics.com
The company believed that the material handling industry needed a smaller line of high-quality trucks. Today, quality remains at the heart of its philosophy, as my visit to several of Crown’s New Bremen manufacturing sites soon revealed. Today, with 10,700 employees worldwide (ranked fifth in the world), 16 manufacturing facilities in 11 locations around the world (including Germany, where it has just opened a new plant in Roding) all boasting the same quality and lean standards, and a service and distribution network that exceeds 500 retail locations in over 80 countries, Crown is not just about ‘the numbers’ and churning out product. Its emphasis remains on the relationship between design, engineering and manufacture. Up to eighty-five percent of components are manufactured by Crown itself and the company’s vertically integrated manufacturing approach often leads to new developments. At one stage, its supplier of seat decks and pallet truck doors was about to shut down for good. Crown stepped in and purchased the company to keep it running, because these components were key to Crown’s new products.
CROWN EMPLOYEES
Crown’s people are its strength, a fact highlighted by talking with several of the New Bremen workers. They are proud to be second or even third-generation Crown employees. With considerable resource devoted to training and career progression, and a family feel reaching from the top down, it certainly feels like a great company to work for. As an example of its investment in training, I was shown a ‘virtual welder’ machine, which allowed trainee welders to perform simulated welds in a classroom environment and ‘rates’ your virtual weld. Wearing a set of VR goggles, the trainee performs various types of weld, which can then be recorded, analysed and assessed by a trainer. Issues with areas such as travel speed and work angle can be highlighted and, where necessary, corrected. There is a further weld training machine on the shop floor, this time where actual welding takes place. Three cameras focus on the weld and there is also a sensor on the head of the weld gun. At the time of my visit, this facility was about to be enhanced with an audio coaching upgrade, telling the welder how to improve as they go along.
>>> September 2014 27
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