Staff report
A Salisbury company, Alcoa Sub-Assembly Logistics, earned a top honor for quality during 2007.
The company, located on Airport Road, assembles truck wheels and tires and ships them to three Freightliner plants: Cleveland, Mount Holly and Gaffney, S.C.
Alcoa Sub-Assembly Logistics earned the prestigious Masters of Quality award. Daimler Trucks North America has recognized only 43 of its more than 3,000 North American manufacturers that ship parts to Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star companies.
The Salisbury company employees about 40 people, said Dawn Eudy, a human resources specialist there.
Employees were honored with a luncheon Tuesday. Graham Young, the material planning and scheduling supervisor at the Cleveland Freightliner plant, was to speak.
Alcoa Sub-Assembly Logistics has been on Airport Road since 2005.
Workers attach rims to tires, then bundle the tires to be shipped to plants, where they are put on tractor-trailers.
“You always wonder how tires get on these big rigs,” Eudy said. “That’s what this is.”
Ken Horvath, production supervisor at the Salisbury sub-assembly plant, said the Masters of Quality award is based on parts per million.
The company determines how many tire orders are correct and shipped properly, he said. It also determines how many orders are rejected.
For example, Horvath said, an order might be considered a reject if the tires are flat or the rims are mismatched. He said an assembled tire weighs 160 pounds.
“It’s real easy to send the wrong tire and the wrong wheel,” he said.
Employees work from 6:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m.
“It’s a tough job for the people out on the floor, putting tires together all day,” Horvath said.