Quality Magazine - April 2009 - (Page 42) | Q UA L I T Y M A N AG E M E N T | QUALITY AT 400 BLADES PER MINUTE American Safety Razor has no second-grade blades—a fact that has this Tennessee manufacturing plant on top of its test-and-inspection game, and has earned it Quality Magazine’s 2009 Plant of the Year award in our small plant division. BY MAGGIE MCFADDEN, MANAGING EDITOR—NEW MEDIA/PRINT T ake a look at the product you shave with. If you own a store-brand razor, it’s likely that that razor came from our 2009 Quality Plant of the Year recipient, Personna American Safety Razor (ASR, Knoxville, TN). The company’s focus on continuous improvement, quality processes and the importance of test and inspection, makes ASR a natural fit for this year’s Plant of the Year award in our small plant division. And, with millions of people’s skin on the line, such a focus is imperative. BACKGROUND Personna American Safety Razor is a private-label supplier of consumer razor blades in the United States. “When you go into a Kroger [a Cincinnati-based grocery retailer] and they have a private-label razor, more than likely that is our razor. Our competition is Bic, Schick and Gillette, as well as other privatelabel manufacturers. We consider ourselves as competing in the overall wet shaving market, and private label is one aspect of that market,” says Kermit Bantz, director of shaving manufacturing at the Knoxville, TN, facility. Total U.S. market share for all razors, including branded products, is around 10% to 15%. Customers include large retailers such as Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, Target and Wal-Mart. ASR has been manufacturing razor blades since 1875. Though the company has been in business for more than 125 years, ASR’s Knoxville, TN, location opened in 1995—first as a distribution location, and later as a blade manufacturing facility. Just three years ago, the Knoxville, TN, plant produced complete disposable razors, ready for shaving. Today, with expanded requirements for blade manufacturing, assembly takes place in Mexico and the Tennessee facility only makes consumer-ready blades. An ISO 9001-certified plant since 2000, the Knoxville facility employs about 155 people. HIGH-VOLUME PROCESSES Despite the current economic conditions, the Knoxville plant saw 2008 volume growth of approximately 2% over the previous year. Prior to 2008, volume grew about 11% each year for five years. Last year, the Knoxville facility produced 3 billion blades. The plant’s high-volume environment is unique, because with 10 mil- ASR AT A GLANCE Location: Knoxville, TN Product: Blades for private-label shaving systems and disposable razors Volume: 10 million blades per day Employees: 155 Production Shifts: Four shifts, seven days per week Plant Size: Approximately 120,000-square-feet including 50,000-square-feet of warehouse and 50,000-square-feet of manufacturing floor space 42 QUALITY | April 2009 www.qualitymag.com http://www.qualitymag.com
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