Use your browser's back button to return to Senator Rockefeller's Webpage.

Washington, DC – Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) today congratulated Toyota Motor Manufacturing of West Virginia and its workers for being dubbed the “benchmark in engine productivity.” The workers at Putnam County’s Buffalo plant received The Harbour Award – given out by automobile industry authority Harbour Consulting -- for an unprecedented fourth straight year.

The Buffalo plant has received the most productive engine operation each and every year the Harbour Awards have been in existence. Even before the inception of the awards, Harbour called the Buffalo plant the most productive engine operation in the U.S., making it essentially the fifth time it has been honored with this designation.

“What the workers at our Buffalo plant have done is simply unheard of,” said Rockefeller. “They have turned the production of automobile engines into an art form.

“To win this award all four years that the award is in existence is really a tribute to team members and to Toyota. Together, they have made the plant the envy of automobile manufacturing not just in the U.S., but all over the world.

“As much as the award reflects greatly on the plant itself, it also brings enormous credit to West Virginia. Their work once again certifies that we have a world-class workforce prepped and ready to meet any challenge in any industry.”

The Harbour Report determined that the Buffalo plant workers produce an engine on average every 1.82 hours. A sub-2 hour time has only been measured twice before. Both of those measurements occurred at the Buffalo plant.

The Harbour Report is the auto industry authority on manufacturing efficiency and productivity.  It measures assembly, stamping, and power train productivity performances – plant by plant, and company by company – for North American automotive manufacturers.

Just last week, the Toyota plant celebrated its 10th anniversary. Rockefeller began meeting with company officials in 1986 in his effort to bring Toyota to West Virginia, a decade-long process culminating in the 1996 announcement that Toyota was locating a $400 million engine plant in Buffalo with 350 jobs.  Since that time, the Buffalo plant has expanded five times, with the company now having a $1 billion investment in the state and, by 2007, 1,150 workers.  

###