Aggreko

Aggreko provides rental power generators, temperature control equipment, and compressed air systems to companies and organizations around the world. The North American division of the international company was founded in 1986. The National Repair Center in New Iberia is one of 49 Aggreko facilities throughout North America. There are 125 employees in the New Iberia facility, 25 of which work in the National Repair Center. Aggreko’s National Repair Center does major repair and reconditioning of power generators and air compressors. While the scope of work differs slightly with each unit, all necessary repairs are made and the units are fully tested, serviced, and painted before being returned to Aggreko locations throughout North America.

Mitch Boudreaux, the National Repair Manager for Power and Air, states “Due to Lean implementations, Aggreko’s National Repair Center has developed a competitive edge to help to provide our company with a platform for future growth and expansion.”

Since their Lean implementation, the company has reduced their turnaround time in half, reduced work in process by 41%, and increased productivity to 84%. Aggreko has experienced an estimated annual cost savings of $500K after implementing Lean with the assistance from the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Louisiana (MEPOL). As a result of their achievements, Aggreko was honored with the MEPOL Platinum Award for Continued Excellence (PACE) in 2005. The PACE Award honors companies that have improved their impact numbers and have made a commitment to continued improvement and excellence.

MEPOL educated and encouraged Aggreko to embrace the principles of Lean manufacturing. MEPOL assisted Aggreko with the tools to identify waste and eliminate non-value added activities. A current state map and future map provided the tool to develop an implementation plan for attacking those non-value added activities. After applying the concepts of the 5S system, a successful transformation occurred throughout their facility.

Aggreko’s commitment to Louisiana, is due to the high productivity rates and the quality of their strong workforce in the New Iberia facility. In 2004, a total of $6.8M was paid out to its employees in New Iberia, with another $156K invested in facility capital improvements (an additional $348K has been spent on facility capital improvements since 2000).The Lean implementation improved every performance metric and exceeded all performance goals in the repair center. After the successful Lean implementation in the repair center, Aggreko’s National Parts group has endorsed the principles of Lean and is in the process of implementing Lean throughout their operational process. The New Iberia Aggreko facility has provided the benchmarks for continued excellence throughout their North American operation, with service centers in Houston and Chicago following in their footsteps implementing similar programs. Impressed by the recent improvements, one of Aggreko’s vendors in Baton Rouge also contacted MEPOL for assistance. The National Repair Center in 2004 outsourced more than $1.5 M to Louisiana facilities.

Hebert Honored with National MEP Award
The Grand Ballroom of the Marriott World Center in Orlando was the stage for Cecile Hebert, marketing coordinator for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Louisiana (MEPOL), to garner a national award at the MEP National Conference, held April 26-30, 2008.

Hebert took home the Newcomer of the Year Award out of a pool of 16 nominees from across the United States. This is the second year in a row a MEPOL employee has received this prestigious award.