Above: Part of the company’s product line extension is radial needle roller and cage assemblies and thrust needle roller bearings.
For our Steel Group, 2003 was a challenge due to record-high raw material and energy costs. Still, the group continued its track record of operating efficiently and being a low-cost provider of high-quality alloy steel. Over the last decade, the steel business has lowered its labor hours per shipped ton of steel by half. This significant change has allowed us to stay competitive in a difficult market. |
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Above: In 2003, Timken expanded its product line and its manufacturing network. At the Clinton, South Carolina, plant, 110 million bearings were produced last year. Kendra
Agnew, setter/operator, adjusts a bearing loader on the production line for one of the Clinton plant’s leading product lines – roller rocker arms, which are used in automotive engines. |
In 2003, we increased our global manufacturing network to more than 80 plants with the acquisition of The Torrington Company. With more plants, a broader product base and more customers to serve, we examined our global manufacturing network for opportunities to focus manufacturing resources. This led to the closing of our Darlington, England, industrial bearing plant and the Rockford, Illinois, ball bearing plant. We also sold the assets of the fixed-wing airframe business at the Standard Plant in Torrington, Connecticut. In addition, operations were rationalized at six plants, impacting up to 30% of production at each facility.
We took further steps to improve our operations with the formation of our supply chain transformation group. Purchasing, order fulfillment, manufacturing strategy implementation, Lean Six Sigma and logistics have been brought together to create an integrated supply chain model. Their focus is to reduce asset intensity, improve customer service and systems support and better manage inventory levels.
To lower distribution costs, the assets of the regional service centers in Illinois, Texas and Ohio were consolidated into the CoLinx, LLC facility in Tennessee in 2003. In total, this consolidation program affected five North American Timken warehouses. In 2004, the Torrington product warehouses in Toronto, Canada, and Reno, Nevada, will be consolidated with CoLinx facilities. CoLinx, a joint venture between Timken, INA USA Corporation, Rockwell Automation and SKF USA, Inc., provides Web-based services and integrated logistics to authorized distributors. We expect to realize operational efficiencies through shared warehousing costs, pooled shipping lanes and improved freight rates.
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Left: One of our new joint-venture plants, Advanced Green Components, LLC, launched its operation in Winchester, Kentucky in mid-2003 to provide forged and machined rings for bearing manufacture. By using a cold-forming process to make bearings, there is a significant savings of material and a reduction in machining time, because the components are closer to the shape and size of the final product. Inspecting cold-forged products is Forging Operator Paul Williams. Sanyo Special Steel Co., Ltd., and Showa Seiko Co., Ltd., are our partners in this venture. |
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