Reliable Plant July August 2008

BY PAUL V. ARNOLD
They came from big plants and small
ones, gargantuans to garages, from
auto companies and firms that
made everything from compressors to
carbon, textiles to toilet seats and everything
in between. They were manufacturing
mutts, hybrids, odd fellows, non-conventional
thinkers.
“When we started in 2002, we were the
kids from down in the Sticks who (industry
foes) believed didn’t know how to build
engines,” says plant manager Chuck Sibley.
Six years later, they are among the motor
manufacturing sector’s best stories and
toughest competitors, depending on what
side of the corporate fence you dwell. The
360 men and women of Navistar Diesel of
Alabama LLC, a Huntsville-based subsidiary
of horsepower heavyweight Navistar
Corporation, build elite-class engines (V6
and V8 mass-movers for commercial and
consumer trucks). Best-built engines have
come from the manner in which these moldbusters
built their plant work structure.
“Navistar didn’t bring people here from its
other plants to start this up. Almost everybody
came from outside of the company,”
says Sibley, who signed on from Gabriel Ride
Control Products. “It was decided that we
would put together a workforce from a variety
of different backgrounds and experiences and
form the best possible culture that we could.”
No templates. No paradigms. No rules.
“I wanted one time in my career where I
didn’t have to break the paradigms and
traditions of the past 10 or 20 years,” he
says. “We started this plant from scratch in
the manner that we thought it would run
the best and be the most reliable and the
most flexible and the most efficient.
We were given tremendous amounts of
autonomy to do what we felt was right.”
Today, an innovative business team
structure drives the 650,000-square-foot
Navistar Diesel facility. It’s an approach to
operations, maintenance and engineering
that feels more community based and
“small plant” than that found at most
Fortune 500 manufacturers. Focus and
function are housed inside three main
plant-floor teams overseeing the Assembly,
Machining and Manufacturing Services
value chains.
Blended roles and blended best practices
have elicited success at the business team
and overall plant levels. Heavy-duty teamwork
enables heavy-duty machines.
WHERE’S MAINTENANCE?
If you are looking for the maintenance
manager at the Navistar plant in Huntsville,
you won’t find him (or her). The position
doesn’t exist. The maintenance department?
www.reliableplant.com July - August 2008 7