Freightliner, the county’s largest employer, has begun recalling laid-off workers.

John Stevenson, manager of the Cleveland plant, said the company has called back about 280 employees over the past four weeks.

Speaking to the Salisbury-Rowan Economic Development Commission on Wednesday, Stevenson said the company is cautiously optimistic about the economy and improving market.

The company eliminated its third shift 18 months ago, laying off 1,304 employees in August 2000. That came when the demand for big trucks plummeted.

Before the layoff, the Cleveland plant had almost 4,000 employees.

Stevenson said officials are closely watching the economy, waiting to see what happens.

The truck market has stabilized at this point, and they do not expect to have any more down weeks in production, he said.

Responding to questions, Stevenson said the Cleveland plant is producing between 130 and 132 trucks a day.

At peak production, the plant turned out about 206 trucks per day.

With improvements in efficiency, Stevenson said the plant could now produce even more.

He emphasized that Freightliner is being very careful in recalling employees, making sure they are called back as needed.

Stevenson’s comments came at the end of a presentation by Freightliner officials on the employee driven improvement program, known as “Kaizen.”

Stevenson and two other top officials cited the improvements in production, savings to the company and overall improvement in the bottom line.

Kaizen, is a Japanese based term. “Kai” meaning change and “zen” meaning for the good.

Mike Tolbert, manufacturing skills manger, explained the process which has been ongoing at the plant for more than three years.

Using a computer presentation and a brief film, Tolbert explained the different elements of Kaizen, emphasizing it can work in any business.

Tom McFry, Kaizen coordinator for the plant, cited the rapid improvements on the plant floor where employee teams have found better ways to do their jobs.

“The entire workforce is working on a daily basis to make improvements,” said McFry.

He ticked off a series of figures showing the improvements, ranging from savings in air freight costs to savings in the floor space needed.

The film showed workers first examining and then redesigning the workspace for a cabinet assembler. The entire process took 72 hours and resulted in reducing the time per cabinet by 23 minutes.

Stevenson applauded the successes of Kaizen. “ The expertise resides on the production line. … This is change from the bottom up . The power is with the employees on the floor.”

“This is a tremendous success story,” said Stevenson.

Responding to questions, he said the employee generated redesigns have saved between 180,000 and 200,000 square feet of floor space that can be used to bring work in- house that is current being out-sourced.

Another official mentioned earlier that having space available puts the Cleveland plant in line for new product lines.

Freightliner officials said they are willing to work with other companies and businesses to share the Kaizen process.

In other business, members of the Economic Development Commission held a closed session to discuss possible location and or expansion of industry.

Randy Harrell, executive director of the commission, said a possible business for the former Color-Tex plant would be discussed in the closed session.

Contact Jessie Burchette at jburchette@salisburypost.com  or call 704-797-4254