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Today, the company continues to innovate, upholding its position as a proud, familyowned, American-made manufacturer. Manufacturing Today had the chance to sit with Denis who shares insights into the development of the XLERATOR dryer and what it takes to be a leading US manufacturer. Denis begins our conversation by detailing the research and development process behind the XLERATOR model.
“ People distinctly dislike using hand dryers because it takes too long to dry your hands, so we set out to create a better design. We wanted to make the product here in the US and had very specific criteria. As such, we brought in an outside engineering group called Invent Resources,” Denis explains.“ The XLERATOR was born and made in America; all the engineering and R & D was done here in our factory, and subsequently, the product is a key part of our DNA. It took three years, but with a lot of prototyping and product testing, we created the XLERATOR hand dryer, which is now the best-selling hand dryer in the world.”
R & D, however, is a continuous process at Excel Dryer. The company’ s philosophy is centered around the Kaizen strategy and the idea of lean manufacturing. Kaizen – as defined by Vorne’ s‘ Lean Production’ – typifies a culture of continuous improvement, bridging the gap between philosophy and action, and is one of the secrets behind Excel Dryer’ s success strategy. In alignment with this ideology, the company is constantly investing in new technologies, processes and automation to further enhance its operational efficiency and working environment.
“ We have cells within the factory that operate on timed operations, so one person assembles a certain part then passes it onto the next person. These steps are precisely timed and very efficient,” Denis describes.“ We’ ve also introduced robotics, both in our assembly area and in our shipping processes, not to lay people off, but to do the jobs that
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