DALLAS - Emerson Motor Technologies used a press conference at the expo to announce new on-demand production capabilities at the company’s Customer Service Center in Southhaven, Miss.

“It’s basically assembly on demand,” said Tim Albers, director of marketing for Emerson Industrial Motors. Motors are produced as each individual order is received, reducing motor lead times from several weeks to just days.

This new manufacturing approach incorporates:

Lean design - Emerson created a new product platform to enable this;

Lean processes; and

Lean systems - new eBusiness systems have been implemented.

The company redesigned the product around “kit” components that allow assembly into a number of different motors. All of this new production is NEMA Premium efficient design. The firm instituted eKanban for Web-enabled communication of supply chain information.

The first product is for the cooling tower industry. Emerson will continue “to add new products to this process,” said Albers.