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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1975-01-02, Page 23a- a DALE SEWERS artemploYee at the Wingham Deilcraft division of Electrohome, works on a ba t,R saw at the plant. Here Dale is sawing the first rough cut in a piece of wood which will eventually become the back of a Conestoga chair. The wood will go to a number of other workers at the plant, each one refining the back until it becomes Pert of someone's dining room chair. (Staff Photo) 44414,1P: saylo••• ELECTROHOME LIMITED WINGHAM rom The Wing= Advance*I es,TIMMo Jag g A age ft ;has upped emp 16 to 100 in five Five years ago .Eleetr?me Ltd. bought a Well known up- holstering and eustoln 'lturui'tture plant in Wingham, Since that takeover the factory, which be- longs to the woodworking De>it.-' craft Division of Electrohome, has been growing at such a rate that the Wingham plant now ac- counts for fully 10 per cent of the entire divisions output; and ac- cording to General Manager, Bill Hanula, it is still growing, In fact, there is so ,much demand for its product that it is in the enviable position of being forced to grow. Mr. Hapula was the man who took over the management of the plant in 1969 after Electrohome purchased Fry and Blackhall, a firm which had manufactured quality upholstered furniture since 1919, and he took a few mo- ments out of his busy work schet dule to talk with an Advance - Times reporter and conduct a tour of the company's facilities. When Bill first arrived on the scene there were 16 employees on the payroll, five of whom were foremen and supervisors–he plant now has 92 workers and plans to up the staff to just over 100 in the near future. During the first year of Diel - craft's operation of©the -factory, the plant stayed pretty much the same as it was. The average out- put was 50 chairs a day and a good run of one type of chair was 200 ,to 250 before another design was started. Now the company • puts ,.out about 325 chairs a day and an average rine for any one of the eight basic chair designs pro- duced .by the corhpany is about Two additions have been made at the Electrohome plant. 2,000. Just to put those figures in some sort of perspective, that means the plant manufactures more chairs in one day now than it did in a week five years ago, and it has made for a whopping 1,500 per cent increase in production since 1969. Added to that" is a continual upgrading which allows increases in month- ly output. Bill hoped to see a 40 per cent increase over Sep- tember's production in October. Bill has learned to be a bit leary of tossing projections around after the 1973 figures in actual production exceeded a 35 per cent projected increase by an addi- tional 30 per cent. The 1974 con- servative estimate called for a 20 per cent increase. However, when interviewed in October, Mr. Hanula said, "If pressure conti- nues from the marketplace, the actual figure could be pushed beyond that quite easily." Changes Necessary The plant's meteoric rise in output has necessitated a few changes as well. The general manager pointed out that over the past two years the company has spent about $85,000 on modernization and remodelling which allows the workers to uti- lize the plant's 12,000 square feet of floor space more efficiently. In 1975 another of the continual up- grading and expansion projects undertaken by the plant will be started. Bill says the project, which includes expansion of finishing rooms and the installa- tion of a new conveyor system to speed up operations; will cost the company somewhere in the yy 'neighborhood :of $60,000. Not only will the scenery change in the Vidtoria St. factory, according to the manager, but there will be increased speciali- zation in the actual work dome. That means more expensive equipment and more specially trained workers. As an example of the change in production, the general manager explained that, for the most part, the upholster- ing work that was done by the plant five years ago has been shifted to a Stratford operation which was recently acquired by the parent company. The plant is currently handling work on molded plastic mirror frames. They handled about 12,000 last year. That operation will soon be transferred to a newly -construct- ed Deilcraft ,factory in Nova Sco- tia.- 2,000. co- tia. These included a machine shop pro- duction line, and upholstery assembly line. Short of Help The rapid. production increase has also had some rather unfor- tunate effects for the Wingham plant as well — there's a labor shortage. Unhappily, Bill men- tioned that in the future the com- pany Will have to add more auto- mated machines to their.produc- tion line because they just can't find the workers to do the jobs. The company will still be hiring, he said, but not as many people as would have been the case if the machines weren't necessary. Present employees will take over operation of many of -the new machines after retraining; as many of their everyday jobs are phased out and the company will assimilate the others into new jobs around the factory. Most of the entirely new jobs that willbe created will be for back-up and maintenance programs. So, the future is bright for the Wingham plant, barring any sort of major economic catastrophes on the national or international scene and the chairs should be moving out�of Wingham faster and -more efficiently in the years to come. - WINGHAM DEILCRAFT Manager Bill ,Haitrla holds two chair Kegs that demonstrate the "before and after" appear- ance of the legs which have to be turned or carved. The first leg is simply a roughly cut and shaped block of wood, while the other is ready to go through further cutting and sanding and then on to assembly: (Staff Photo of he ty o) BURKE ELECTRIC ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS WINGHAM Installed the lighting and power distribution service for ;these new additions to t.h,e Electrohome plant. Quality sets the stage at Electrohome. THE'FORMER Rac and Brea Gary Templeman carried on and is now the local outlet for general merchandise store. rs ly ly Our home entertainment and comfort products together with our fine furniture have earned us a reputation for excellence at home and abroad. Our TV monitors alone are acclaimed in over 25 different countries. And the reason for this wide -spread acceptance' . Quality. From initial design through the last stage of production, we take extra care. 'your assurance of top performance for years to come. Electrohome Limited, Kitchener, Ontario. ELECTBOHOME ... an extra degree of excellence. k Billiards building in which business has been renovated a Becker dairy products and New location on Hwy. 86 for Bridge Motors About the first of the year the new garage for Bridge Motors will be rdy for occupancy. The new location is on Highway 86 east, about a mile. out of Wingham. The firm purchased the property in the fall of 1973 and in the spring of 1974 John Ernewein of Palmerston began construction of the_ building on the new site. Mr. Bridge had a few problems obtaining access to the highway, but says, "That's all settled now." The dimensions of the new garage will be -144 feet by 56 feet. The front end of the building will include a showroom for five cars and two service bays for a wash rack and lubrication rack. An- other area will be designated as a parts department and the work- shop, will contain enough. space for 12 units. The new facility will also accommodate three, offices and a lounge area. Bridge Motors is a partner§hip business which incorporates two garages, one in Wingham and one in Brussels. Al Bridge's brother, Glen, operates the garage in Brussels and employs four mechanics and two office girls who also do the clerical work for the Wingham branch of the company. Within the past two months two mechanics have been hired for the garage in Wingham because of increasing sales. Mr. Bridge found the location at the Jose- phine -Victoria corner in Wing - ham inadequate for his eicpand- ing business. With the larger workshop in his new garage. he feels that he can provide not only more service but also better serv- ice. He intends to carry twice as much stock and expects that he will expand his new location. A SETUP MAN is one of the most important workers in woodcraft and Richard House, the Wingham Deilcraft's setup man, is one of the ,best. Rick has to take -the designer's blueprint and translate it into the placement of cutting blades and angles so that the turning machine operator cuts the desired design in wood. After placing the blades in their proper position he must also balance the blades and turning head so the woodcuts will be even. (Staff Photo) THE TURNING AND CARVING work for chair and table legs is done by a machine operator like Eugene'Connley at the Deilcraft plant. Manager Bill Hanula pointed out that