VONORE, Tenn. (Jan. 19, 2016) – MasterCraft Boats (NASDAQ: MCFT) today joined very elite company being named among the 2015 IndustryWeek Best Plants, a prestigious award honoring operational excellence in leading-edge manufacturing facilities across North America.
For over two decades, the IndustryWeek Best Plants award has recognized companies that have successfully implemented strategies to increase competitiveness, enhance customer satisfaction and foster stimulating work environments. The goal is for other companies to then emulate these best practices. Highly respected, U.S.-based manufacturers such as Harley Davidson, Lockheed Martin and Toyota have won this honor in the past.
“MasterCraft is honored to earn the 2015 IndustryWeek Best Plants award and be recognized among these elite manufacturing facilities,” said Terry McNew, President and CEO of MasterCraft. “Across the company, we continue to set new benchmarks for operational excellence and establish best practices in manufacturing. Our dedicated employees, management team and board members each were instrumental in the company earning this award.”
One of the key drivers for MasterCraft was its successful employee empowerment program, an ongoing company-wide initiative that encourages factory line workers to suggest improvements to the production process. More than 13,000 employee-generated improvements were implemented over the course of the last fiscal year alone.
The positive results can be readily seen across the company’s operating metrics including an improved first-pass quality yield of close to 75% and a significant reduction in warranty costs. MasterCraft is able to offer an industry-leading five-year, bow-to-stern warranty and the company’s customer satisfaction index bested the national average three years in a row.
MasterCraft also remains the only marine manufacturer to achieve three separate ISO certifications for Quality, Environmental and Safety management systems. ISO certifications remain the international standard for quality management systems with independent third party verification and more than 60 years of best practices used as criteria to obtain these endorsements.
MasterCraft will be profiled in an upcoming issue of IndustryWeek Magazine as well as honored during the 2016 IndustryWeek Manufacturing and Technology Conference and Expo to be held in early May. For more information regarding MasterCraft, please visit www.MasterCraft.com.
