ERIE 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014 | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | 7L
Lord Corp.’s big move
Fun facts about Lord’s facility
Employees are slowly moving into the new Summit Township facility
Highlights about Lord Corp.’s $100 million renovation project at the former Bush Industries building. The company has consolidated two of its Erie-area locations into part of the building.
By JIM MARTIN jim.martin@timesnews.com As Will Hinkston led guests through the former Bush Industries warehouse in September 2012, he asked them to imagine what the space might become. Today, 18 months and nearly $100 million later, there’s little need to imagine. Lord Corp.’s new design and manufacturing center is quickly becoming a reality. About 150 employees, mostly office staff, already have been transferred to this 575,000-square-foot space on Robison Road, which will house the company’s manufacturing and design operations. Hinkston, the company’s vice president of global operations development, expects 330 workers to move in by the end of March and all 900 Eriebased employees by the end of October. For now, about 250 construction workers continue to work each day on the complex, a mixture of gleaming offices, pristine manufacturing spaces and a handful of half-finished sections. Millions of dollars worth of materials, including 15 acres of drywall, and 325,000 hours of labor, have built a showplace, complete with a new fitness center, gymnasium-sized laboratories and a modern cafeteria where workers can order food from their computer and have it waiting for them or delivered
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The site 2455 Robison Road
Interior paint 3,500 gallons
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The facility
The length of conduit, wire, piping, studs in Lord space Erie
GREG WOHLFORD/Erie Times-News
A new manufacturing area takes shape as construction continues inside the nearly $100 million Lord Corp. facility in Summit Township. Some office workers have already moved in, and all 900 employees are expected to be there by the end of October.
ONLINE EXTRA: See more from inside Lord Corp. GoErie.com/photos to a remote lunch room. Reaction from employees who have already movedinhasbeenpositive. “They can’t believe how nice and how bright it is,” said Steve Pattison, the company’s director of manufacturing and facility development. “They are all very pleased.” But Hinkston sees it as something more than a shiny new place to replace aging facilities on West 12th Street and West Grandview Boulevard.
Improvement program “I view this place as a weapon for getting business and better serving our customers,” Hinkston said. “This is not just a relocation program. It’s an
improvement program.” The building boasts an in-house credit union office and a cutting-edge security system. But the new facility does eliminate one luxury — and that was on purpose. There are only about a third as many private offices, Hinkston said. “There are no corner offices with nice windows,” Hinkston said. “We all share all the nice light.” The manufacturing side of the business features a newly designed work flow that sees products move efficiently from one area to the next and on to testing before heading for the loading dock. “With this layout, the products never back up,” Hinkston said.
The company’s products — more than 2,000 different items — continued to sell well in 2013 despite cutbacks in military spending. Most of the military cutbacks, Hinkston said, were offset by higher civilian aerospace spending and growth in other areas, including agriculture and oil and gas production. Nods to those product lines and others can be found throughout the complex. In the new cafeteria, a giant mural shows a jetliner taking flight. Other product lines are highlighted in photos and on video screens throughout the building. The common denominator in most of these prod-
Millcreek Mall: 1.3 million square feet
Nashville, Tenn.
Building Lord is in: 1.1 million square feet (Lord uses 44.2% of the space)
About 565 miles
Lighting 6,500 light fixtures
Electrical service 12 megawatts, would power 1,200 homes
SOURCES: Lord Corp.; Warner Management Co. CHRIS SIGMUND/Erie Times-News
ucts is the use of proprietary adhesives and specially formulated rubber to bond steel to steel with the goal of reducing noise and vibration. “Our first product was used in a trolley car to reduce noise,” Hinkston said. Current products are displayed throughout the newly finished offices — drive parts for drilling rigs, parts for agriculture combines that are designed to slip rather than break. “We like to be in areas where the cost of failure is very high so that customers are willing to invest in our engineering,” Hinkston said. The past is also on display here. The new building pays
homage through a series of named rooms and areas to founder Hugh Lord, his son Tom Lord and Donald Alstadt, the company’s longtime chairman. “We’re trying to make sure we don’t forget our legacy,” said Hinkston, who explained that a special legacy committee has been charged with gathering and displaying photos and mementos that honor the company’s history. For a company that built its first products for General Electric before building parts for planes flown by Charles Lindbergh, that history is a rich one. “You don’t want to worship the past, but you don’t
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