Lafayette manufacturing: advanced, lean and plant expansions topping $525 million.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: REGIONAL REPORT: NORTH CENTRAL

WITH ENGINES, GEARS, truck trailers, corn starch, magnet wire, window blinds, automobiles and more rolling off production lines, recent plant expansions topping $525 million, and Toyota coming to town, Lafayette manufacturing is redefining the swifter, higher and stronger motto.

Inventors, entrepreneurs and a proud workforce set the tone more than a century ago for what today has grown to be a hotbed of productivity, with about 130 manufacturers employing nearly a third of the county's workforce.

"We're seeing investments in new lines, new products and new automation," says Cinda Kelley, executive director of the Lafayette-West Lafayette Economic Development Corp. "We're going for the gold in manufacturing."

Today's biggest investment is at Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc., which chose Lafayette 20 years ago and is now spending $230 million to ready its plant to make 100,000 Toyota Camrys annually, on top of the 120,000 Subarus it already makes each year. In jobs, it could mean 1,000 more than today's 2,350. And Kelley is also working with Toyota suppliers eyeing the community, so the good news could keep on coming.

The news, by the way, would be printed at the Journal and Courier's new $23 million printing facility, this summer debuting a new size and format printed on a press that's the first of its kind in the U.S.

Another dynamo expansion is Tate & Lyle's $100,000 investment at its north plant, one of two in town, so it can increase production by 50 percent.

The company employs 475 in Lafayette, making corn starch, corn syrup and sweeteners.

"Even the small companies are growing," Kelley says, citing the $2.5 million facility that homegrown Roadworks just moved its 35 employees into. It makes decorative stainless truck parts--"jewelry for semis," she says.

"We're on an upswing, and we expect that to continue," she says.

Secrets of success. Why the success? Kelley attributes it to several factors--lean manufacturing, quality of work, a skilled labor force and ongoing training.

Lean is the theme at Wabash Valley Lean Network, which the economic-development group hosts. About 35 firms participate, exchanging knowledge and experience, says director Wayne Reisinger. "It...