Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/655335
The PACCAR Engine Company is a key ecomonic growth driver in the Golden Triangle Area of Mississippi. The Golden Triangle region of east central Mississippi was hardly known as a hotbed of high-end manufac- turing before PACCAR Engine Company's (PEC) 2007 purchase of 400 acres of pasture land that would soon be the home of its $400 million engine plant. Three years after the company invested in the prop- erty about halfway between the cities of Columbus and Starkville, the plant delivered its first MX-13 Engine in 2010. More than 100,000 engines later, the plant has transitioned to the additional production of the MX-11 Engine, and more than 500 employees go to work daily over three shifts in what is truly a state-of-the-art facility. "We added another product type, without hesi- tation, that will be very important to the successful PACCAR engine portfolio," says Leon Handt, Peterbilt Assistant General Manager of Operations. "Our expec- tations for the success of this plant were high from the beginning, and we've accomplished a great deal here. It's a credit to our work force that we fully expect even greater successes ahead." "A place of choice" Nothing like the PEC plant had ever existed in the area before, according to Handt. Even the fact that it's air-conditioned — in part to ensure that no con- densation occurs in the climatization process of the unfinished engine blocks — makes it unique among manufacturing environments and employers in the region. Human Resources Director George Kerekes says that fact helped the company target the best workers in the area. "It's not hard to bring in the best around here," says Kerekes. "You give them an opportunity to work for a Fortune 200 Company. You give them an oppor- tunity to build engines for the best trucks in the world. And you tell them you'll be making the best engines in the world. Plus it's a premium, comfortable working environment. "Is this a place of choice to work? You bet it is." As such, PEC has proven to be very popular with skilled workers looking to lay the foundations for a successful career. "We put a lot of time and training into our selec- tion processes and make sure that everyone who comes in here has the same values, the same core beliefs," says Handt. "You start with that, and they assimilate quite easily into the culture of quality that we've built here." PeC Plant is a Jewel in the Golden triangle 18 l FIRST CLASS the paccar engine issue paccar engine plant