MetoKote Corporation's Sheffield Village, OH, facility has been selected as Supplier of the Year by Elster Perfection. The award was presented on March 5 at an executive leadership meeting at Elster's Geneva, OH, facility. Jeff Lucy, CPO of Elster Perfection, expressed that "MetoKote has worked hard over the past year to earn this award and we are proud to recognize MetoKote as our Supplier of the Year." Jeff Oravitz, CEO and President, and Jon Barrett, V.P. Business Development, accepted this award for MetoKote.
"Many factors played a role in selecting MetoKote for this award," stated Helen French, Sr. Buyer with Elster. "Weekly and monthly Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were reviewed over the year. MetoKote was able to improve their on-time delivery, lead times and PPM scores significantly. Their overall performance was noticed by many of our internal departments. This is very important to us because our supplier's performance has a direct effect on our customer orders as well as on our own production."
Almost a year ago, Elster and MetoKote formed a strategy team to help work through the new supplier metrics that were put into place. Victoria Lance, Plant Manager of MetoKote Sheffield Village, says, "We worked very hard, especially over the last year, to improve our service and partnership with Elster. Six individuals, two from Elster and four from MetoKote, formed the strategy team that worked diligently to get us here today. It is a true honor to win this award."
Gas distribution pipes require a very specialized high film build, thermoset epoxy powder coating. Unlike typical powder coatings, the coating needs to be extremely flexible so that the pipes can be crimped during the assembly operation and bent up to 90 degrees during installation. The high film build and flexibility combination requirement makes this process a very unique application in the general coatings industry. Additionally, gas distribution products have stringent dielectric strength requirements to meet electrical safety testing standards.
MetoKote and Elster have a long standing relationship. Over 30 years ago in Lima, OH, MetoKote began powder coating gas pipes for Elster, formerly known as Perfection Pipe. In 1992, for logistics purposes, the project moved to MetoKote's Sheffield Village, OH, location near Cleveland.
