Dayton's Becker wins Honda kudos
Thursday, June 19, 2008
DAYTON — When it has electrical problems in its American plants, Honda of America Manufacturing knows just who to call.
In late December 2007, the automaker had a problem with a controller on a paint line conveyor at its East Liberty auto plant in Logan County.
The problem cropped up late on a Saturday. Dennis Shireman, 57, an technical support engineer for Dayton's Becker Electric Supply, recalled the day in detail, saying he was readying to go to church on a Sunday morning when he got a call from Honda.
"I put on my Honda whites," and drove to the East Liberty plant from his Delaware home, Shireman recalled.
Not that he was complaining.
"Any Honda crisis is my crisis, as far as I'm concerned," Shireman said.
Honda cited Shireman's responsiveness in naming Becker as one of eight companies honored as 2008 suppliers of the year. Becker was best in its category at providing maintenance, repair and operational services, the automaker said.
"This is what we think separates us from our competitors," said Dave Adkinson, Becker president.
Honda is one of the company's biggest customers, he added, noting that Becker is building a branch near Honda's new auto plant in Greensburg, Ind.
"Where Honda goes, we go," Adkinson said.
Ron Lietzke, a Honda spokesman, said if the company had not finished the project that weekend, it would have had to wait for another long weekend or another shut-down period. Shut-downs typically happen twice a year, around Independence Day and around Christmas.
Shireman came in with "his expertise" and got the system running, getting cars from paint shop onto the main line more efficiently, Lietzke said.
"The impact potentially is millions of dollars, when you consider not having an auto plant in production," Lietzke said.
With 2,500 employees, the East Liberty plant makes the Honda Civic sedan, CRV and Element.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
