New Britain’s Polamer Precision Named One of Three Best Plants in North America

New Britain-based Polamer Precision has been named one of North America’s best plants by a leading industry publication, earning a spot in the top three after being named a finalist in the annual competition last fall.

“They don't mistake excellence for perfection. Continuous improvement is built into their very makeup,” the publication IndustryWeek (IW) said about the three plants named Best in an article to be featured in the upcoming March/April issue. 

Joining Polamer Precision at the top of the rankings are All Metals Fabricating of Allen, Texas and SSP Fittings Corp., based in Twinsburg, Ohio.  The businesses “demonstrate the admirable performance metrics that can accrue when manufacturers focus on leadership, teamwork, technology, coupled with a relentless drive to improve” IW pointed out. 

“IW Best Plants winners represent the pinnacle of manufacturing excellence—by combining lean principles, modern technology and teams empowered to make critical process improvements, these plants are able to achieve world-class results," said Travis Hessman, IndustryWeek editor-in-chief. "They present a new standard in operational excellence, offering a new set of best practices that can help achieve higher quality and greater productivity for the entire manufacturing industry."

Polamer Precision is a global aerospace manufacturing company specializing in complex aerospace engine components for demanding applications. The company, according to its website, collaborates with clients to solve challenges in engineering and production. Polamer Precision's approach to aerospace manufacturing is described as “vastly different than other sub-primes in the aerospace industry.”

Founded in 1997, it had 12 employees and 12,000 square feet of manufacturing space by 2003.  A decade later, the company expanded in 2013, building a state-of-the-art 152,000 square foot facility in New Britain for its 150 employees.  The founder and CEO is Chris Galik, a native of Poland who moved to the U.S. in the mid-1990’s to pursue his dream of launching a business in the industry. 

The 2019 IW Best Plants winners will be honored during a luncheon awards ceremony at Manufacturing & Technology 2020, an IndustryWeek event, to be held June 23-25 in Orlando.

Last fall, IndustryWeek whittled down the field in its annual search for manufacturing excellence.  Five manufacturing facilities, and the people and processes that keep them running, comprised the 2019 Industry Week Best Plants Awards finalists. The five, announced in October, were All Metals Fabricating (Allen, Texas); Johnson Controls Building Technologies & Solutions (Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico); Plastic Packaging Technologies (Columbus, Ohio); Polamer Precision Inc. (New Britain, Conn.) and SSP Fittings Corp. (Twinsburg, Ohio)

The finalists, according to IW, demonstrated traits seen through 30 years of awarding IW Best Plants annually: “leaders who encourage the best from the workforce; engaged employees who strive to improve every single day through process improvement, technology innovation and supply chain excellence; and, of course, admirable performance metrics that accrue as a result of those efforts.”

Established in 1990, the IndustryWeek Best Plants Awards program annually recognizes plants, located in North America, that are on the leading edge of efforts to increase competitiveness, enhance customer satisfaction, and create stimulating and rewarding work environments. Its further goal is to encourage other manufacturing managers and work teams to emulate the honorees by adopting world-class practices, technologies, and improvement strategies.

Completed applications are reviewed by a judging panel of IW editors and trusted advisors. Using a weighted scoring system, the composite ratings of the judges determine the Best Plants finalists. The finalists receive a second questionnaire seeking documentation of achievements and presenting plant-specific follow-up questions.