Milford Fabricating: From Ashes to Production in 28 Days
Here is the untold story of a company, who rebuilt their entire factory in 28 days after a devastating fire on March 31, 2009 utilizing their policies and procedures as the basis to recreate this family owned company since 1947.
Even though the fire destroyed all the physical assets of the company it didn’t destroy the strong leadership of the management team along with the strong foundation of our AS9100 Certification which enabled the Milford Fabricating team to rebuild the company in 28 days.
What was thought to be the end of a family business that started in 1947 by Mr. Edward Pohl Sr and now operated by 2nd and 3rd generations of the Pohl family is back up and running.
The morning of March 31, 2009 started out like any other day with a team of highly skilled employees producing precision Aerospace sheet metal parts along with commercial parts and assemblies. A fire broke out on one of the machines that suddenly became out of control. Everyone evacuated the building in a safe manner without injuries.
On the night of the fire, the management team rallied together to develop a plan which is laid out in their procedures, to continue the manufacturing of parts to support their customers’ needs and the livelihood of the workforce.
The very next day the team sprang into action to execute the plan to rebuild the company from the ground up as everyone was focused on the customer’s needs and what to do to continue to provide quality parts.
By Friday April 3rd they signed a lease at the old Bic lighter manufacturing building in Milford, CT. While one team secured the location, other teams were identifying the type of machines, equipment, benches, hand tools, along with office furniture and computers, along with talking to their customers and suppliers.
The most important thing we had going for us was the strong leadership of the management team along all their documented procedures.
The Milford Fabricating procedures that defined our Standard Work and operating system was stored on their computer’s main data base which is stored off site and backed up every night.
Although they lost the building and everything in it, the heart and soul of the operating system was still alive and well. This allowed them to set up shop in one of their other two sites to print out their policies and procedures as they needed these documents to recreate the factory.
As an AS9100 certified company, their policies and procedures were clearly defined and documented focusing on their customer’s specifications. It became very easy to build compliance into the new factory as they knew exactly what to do and how to do it.
By the middle of the following week the new machines were defined and delivery was in progress. An army of electricians were working around the clock to wire the state of art equipment.
As we fast forward ahead now to October 2009 we have just completed our first AS9100 surveillance audit since the fire. The results of the audit came out to be a score of 92%. This would not have been possible if we didn’t have the strong foundation built on our AS9100 Certification.