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Two Big Awards for AGCO Jackson Plant

The Association for Manufacturing Excellence chose the Jackson plant for its AME Excellence Award, and Jackson was named the 2017 Assembly Plant of the Year by ASSEMBLY magazine.

By Marilyn Cummins

When AGCO Jackson Operations received two prestigious manufacturing industry awards in 2017, it became the first-ever agricultural manufacturer to win either honor. Both awards lauded the innovative approaches used at Jackson to make complex, custom-configured tractors and application equipment.

First, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence chose the Jackson plant for its AME Excellence Award, specifically commending AGCO’s employees and their continual drive toward operational excellence, as well as adopting new tools and integrating innovative technology. Then, Jackson was named the 2017 Assembly Plant of the Year by ASSEMBLY magazine, which said the world-class plant was chosen for the 14th annual award because of the way it has applied cutting-edge technology to build complex products better, faster and more efficiently.

In both cases, these industry-first awards reflect the willingness at the Jackson plant, as well as throughout AGCO, to continuously improve operations. Innovations at the facility include Glass assisted-reality wearable headset devices—which are an advanced version of what was formerly called Google Glass—and adoption of mixed-product manufacturing processes that have reduced the time needed to produce and inspect the new equipment built there. AGCO produces high-horsepower Challenger® and Massey Ferguson® tractors as well as RoGator® and TerraGator® by Challenger application equipment at the Jackson plant.

“Farmers expect the best when they purchase AGCO equipment, and we intend to beat those expectations,” Eric Fisher, director of operations at the plant, told ASSEMBLY magazine. “With the continuous improvements we’re making here, we provide our dealers and farmers with the highest quality agricultural equipment available.”