Six Star Magazine Six Star Magazine 2014 | Page 28

A Legacy
Milestone
In May of this year, Canadian automotive journalists
arrived at Subaru of Indiana Automotive (SIA)
to witness another milestone at the plant. 2014
marks the 25th anniversary of the introduction of
the Subaru Legacy. As you might expect, Subaru
designed a special 25th anniversary edition of its
iconic family sedan. So what better place to go
and see this new vehicle than at the plant where
it’s being built.
Journalists got a chance to spend some quality
time with the new Legacy, giving it a thorough
inspection both inside and out. As a special
treat, SIA also rolled out the very first Legacy
model ever produced at the plant – a tribute to
the past as well as a look towards the future.
Then the journalists got behind the wheel
of the new Legacy. First they had a few laps
around the facility’s test track. Then they took
the car out for a real world drive through the
beautiful Indiana countryside.
Look for their reports on the 25th
anniversary Legacy in your local newspaper
or your favourite Canadian automotive
magazine.

management sets
goals to reduce waste
even further. Managers
in every part of the
plant are responsible
for identifying the waste
they produce, tracking
that waste by literally
weighing it before it’s disposed and then coming up with ideas on how
to further reduce it.
Then the employees (SIA prefers to call them ‘Associates”) are
empowered to implement these programs throughout the plant.
They’re also encouraged to suggest their own waste reduction ideas.
“After all,” says Coogan, “they’re on the front lines of the process every
day. They see the waste we produce as we produce it. Who better to
come up with ways to reduce it?” In fact, many of the waste-reduction
programs currently in place at SIA are the result of employee ideas.
These include:
•  aving the caps from the thousands of plastic containers that get
S
used in the plant every year (mostly engine and transmission parts)
and sending them back to Japan. In one year alone, more than
1,450,977 caps were returned there to be re-used.
•  e-using the styrofoam inserts that protect the engine and
R
transmission parts shipped from Japan. The parts are placed in large
metal containers that, in the past, were returned to Japan empty. Now
they go back filled with styrofoam that can be reused 5-10 times before
needing to be recycled.
•  aving with crushing the hundreds of burned out light bulbs the plant
S
replaces every year and separating them into their component parts
(glass and metal) for recycling.
The enormity of the challenge SIA fac