Brose Tuscaloosa Plant Recognized For Manufacturing Excellence By IndustryWeek

Brose North America’s Tuscaloosa, Alabama manufacturing facility earned the prestigious honor of being selected as one of IndustryWeek’s 2021 Best Plants Award winners. IndustryWeek recognizes Brose Tuscaloosa for exceptional manufacturing performance in 2020 amid a global pandemic, maintaining quality, optimizing production and, most importantly, maintaining team morale during a year filled with adversity.

“This great honor belongs to the individuals at Brose Tuscaloosa whose hard work and dedication to efficiency and innovation drive quality in the most challenging of times,” said Jim Barbaretta, general manager. “Brose Tuscaloosa is a lean organization that serves as a performance benchmark to our peers and receiving recognition on a national scale inspires our continual focus on excellence.”

Brose Tuscaloosa began production of door systems, cooling fan modules and seat adjusters in 2004. To meet growing customer demand, the facility has invested $14 million in infrastructure, including a drive-in acoustics chamber, state-of-the-art measurement laboratory and a 9,150 square-foot expansion of office space. The facility also added 400 jobs in recent years, fulfilled partially through its award-winning hands-on apprenticeship program.

Just three North American manufacturing facilities earned recognition from IndustryWeek as part of the 2021 Best Plants Awards program for their ability to outpace expectations through supply chain issues, labor shortages and a global pandemic.

“These plants are driven to achieve excellence in all they do—streamlining production, improving processes, eliminating defects and empowering their workers to achieve the impossible,” said Travis Hessman, IndustryWeek editor in chief. “They deliver their products on time and on budget, sure, but they do so with world-class metrics in operational efficiency, safety, and a sense of continuous improvement that permeates their entire culture.”

The IndustryWeek Best Plants Awards competition began in 1990 to showcase excellence in leadership, plant floor operations and quality in manufacturing. Today, the competition’s 31st class of honorees demonstrate comprehensive levels of excellence across a broad range of categories, as well as the ability to sustain and improve on those extraordinary achievements. IndustryWeek will celebrate 2021 Best Plants Award winners during an awards ceremony at the 2021 Manufacturing & Technology Conference, held November 9-11 in Cleveland.

About Brose Brose is the fourth-largest family-owned automotive supplier. Every other new car worldwide is equipped with at least one Brose product. The company's intelligent solutions for vehicle access and interiors provide greater comfort and flexibility. Innovative concepts for thermal management increase efficiency and contribute to environmental and climate protection. Brose's systems understanding enables new functions in all kinds of vehicles - whether on four or two wheels. Around 25,000 employees at 65 locations in 24 countries generated a turnover of 5.1 billion euros in 2020.

About Brose North America Brose has been a committed partner to the North American market since 1993. The mechatronics specialist now counts twelve locations across Canada, the United States and Mexico and employs approximately 6,000 people in the region. The entire range of Brose products is manufactured throughout the North American facilities, from door modules and seat systems to drives and electronics.