AFG Industries Automates, Restructures, and Reorganizes Glass Plants

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). John Litzinger, President and Chief Executive Officer of AFG Industries (Kingsport, Tennessee), a subsidiary of Asahi Glass Company (TSE: 5201) (Tokyo, Japan), announced, during a video presentation in June of 2005, that as part of the aggressive restructuring and reorganization, AFG Industries would lower costs by at least ten percent. This will be accomplished, in part, by closing unprofitable plants and lessening the need for manual labor through a plant automation program. Automation would be carried out by installing automated machines that move and stack glass within the plants. The Concord, Ontario fabrication plant was closed in August of 2005.

In 2004, the Atlanta-based AFGD was relocated to Kingsport, Tennessee and reorganized into three units: AFG Glass (float glass operations); AFG Coatings (residential and commercial low-emissivity coating); and AFG Fabrication, which will continue the activities of the remaining AFGD branches. In addition, AFG Insulating has become AFG Residential, and GPI has become AFG Laminating. AFG has nine primary flat glass manufacturing plants, four coating plants, five residential insulating locations, and 34 commercial fabrication and distribution operations.

The automation of AFG’s flat glass manufacturing locations is underway. The installation of flat glass handling robots, supplied by Kuka Robotics (Clinton Township, Michigan), a subsidiary of Kuka Roboter Gmbh (Augsburg, Germany), and associated material handling equipment began with the focus on the primary flat glass manufacturing plants. The installation of the automated equipment is being done in phases and in conjunction with normal production and maintenance schedules.

AFG Glass has seven flat glass plants in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Mexico. The Cinnaminson, New Jersey and Bridgeport, West Virginia plants have completed the automation work. Church Hill, Tennessee is about 70% complete and Richmond, Kentucky and Quebec City have begun phase II. The Spring Hill, Kansas plant is scheduled to start in May 2006. The Victorville, California plant is set to start phase II in September and Blue Ridge, Tennessee in a few years. The automation of each plant takes approximately nine months to a year from installation to completion. Company-wide, the automation process will take from six to ten years.

The automation program will continue at the company’s coating and fabrication plants through 2010, after the flat glass manufacturing plants have been automated.

AFG Industries was founded in 1978 and is the second largest flat glass manufacturer in North America plus the largest supplier to the construction and specialty glass markets.

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