42 | The Fisher Story
1966 New 100,000-square-foot manufacturing
licensee plant opens in Cernay, France, moving
production from Mulhouse, France.
Design BFC valve
body, Type 310
gas regulator and
Continental
Fishtail ® valve
introduced.
Drawing of flow through the Fishtail valve
Advertising department in Marshalltown purchases its
first collating machine.
Harry Bailey (left) and Jack Johnson operate the new collating machine
Cernay, France, office in 1966
Sales meeting utilizes the theme “The Countdown
Year.” (Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. and Kona Kai
Klub in San Diego, California).
Governor Road Opens
Safety glasses program begins in Marshalltown.
A
t its opening in 1967, the
360,000-square-foot factory
on Governor Road in
Marshalltown was the largest
and most advanced control
valve manufacturing facility in
the world. In some areas, six
machining operations occurred
simultaneously, and it took only
six seconds for a brass rod to
become control valve
components. Machining
resources already included an
108-inch vertical turret lathe
and a six-spindle drill. Up to
1,200 employees worked at this
facility on three shifts.
In 1991, the largest
manufacturing restructuring
effort in the company’s history
began. The focused factory
concept merged machining and
assembly capabilities to improve
efficiency. Manufacturing units
or cells were created to focus on
specific product lines (such as
sliding-stem valves) and to
enable line-of-sight
manufacturing. Each cell
functions independently while
sharing shipping and
maintenance resources.
A 28,000-square-foot
addition to Governor Road
included a state-of-the-art
powder-coat painting system,
welding booths and updated
lighting.
In 2001, the site adopted
lean manufacturing and value
stream concepts to eliminate
waste and improve throughput.