From the new lights in Winfield to the darkness of your fridge, Rubbermaid transforms their Winfield plant to manufacture their Premier line of storage containers, and names Young Electric 2015 Service Contractor of the Year!

Rubbermaid's Premier containers, now being manufactured at their Winfield, KS plant, are designed to better resist stains and odors

 You may best know Rubbermaid® as the company that makes the orange coolers that athletes use to douse each other after a big victory. Or from your kitchen cabinets, where stacks of food storage devices anxiously await your leftovers. At the Rubbermaid facility in Winfield, they’re now known for both.

For as long as they’ve been in production, every single Rubbermaid® water cooler has been produced in Winfield. Now, thanks to a 14-month plant transformation, Rubbermaid’s Premier food storage containers will be also be produced at the Winfield facility.

So, just what does a plant transformation involve?
As you can imagine, electricity runs most everything at a manufacturing facility, from equipment to coffee pots. This means pre-planning was critical, as we were not only installing new machines, but moving existing ones.

Removing, relocating, and installing existing equipment and cells also meant new power distribution for all equipment, both existing and new. All told, 18 new production machines – and a multitude of auxiliary equipment for each machine – were installed. In addition, installation included six new vertical storage silos (for storing raw product prior to production), each with their own level monitoring system. Last but certainly not least were a variety of facility system upgrades and new lighting updates.

“Thank you, Young Electric!”

To culminate the massive, 14-month initiative, Rubbermaid held a Contractor Appreciation Awards Luncheon on October 27th, with Rubbermaid Engineering & Quality Manager Steve Moore serving as emcee and overall presenter. Of the 20 or so contractors involved on the project, about a dozen were invited to the Luncheon.

Of those receiving awards, only two companies were given a Special Award for Contractor of the Year, with Rubbermaid Facilities Manager (now Technical Services Manager) Mike Adams presenting the Service Award to Young Electric. In addition, $50 Company Store Gift Certificates were presented for each YE team member involved on the project – certainly a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

For almost a year and a half, Young Electric had an 8-12 person crew working on the project, on-site, non-stop.

The best part? Hearing Rubbermaid share several safety, quality, and dependability-related stories regarding our work, including our willingness to make a total resources commitment at the outset, and when - on a previous project - one of our workers “pulled rank” on senior level Rubbermaid staff to steer them clear of a taped off caution area!

Though there may be too many to try and thank, we’d like to offer our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Rubbermaid management and staff that were so wonderful to work with, with special thanks to Steve Moore and Mike Adams for their leadership and guidance from start to finish.

We think a Gatorade Shower is in order!