Marietta Facility Singled Out for Performance, Safety Record and Employee Excellence

WALTHAM, Mass.–Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO – News), the world leader in serving science, today announced that its Marietta, Ohio, plant is a winner of Industry Week magazine’s 2008 Best Plant competition, which recognizes North American facilities for manufacturing excellence. The Marietta facility manufactures a range of laboratory equipment, including ultra-low-temperature freezers, cell culture incubators and other equipment used primarily for life sciences research. The plant stood out among the other entries because of its outstanding safety record and employee programs that helped boost efficiency 45 percent over the past three years.

Every employee in the Marietta plant participates in activities to improve efficiency and productivity. These activities are formalized in Thermo Fisher’s company-wide productivity program, called Practical Process Improvement (PPI). This program is based on teams that follow a well-defined process to make improvements in their daily jobs, from manufacturing to marketing and customer support. In Marietta, the PPI process led to projects that created approximately $2 million in savings in 2007 by reducing waste and improving efficiencies, helping the plant produce $4 million more in product than it did in 2006, with significantly lower labor costs.

Among the accomplishments of the Marietta facility is a reported injury rate that is one-fourth the industry average – with no lost time injuries in 2007. The workforce of 458 employees is also actively involved in a program for helping the plant strengthen its employee culture, as well as community initiatives including local fundraising, educational programs and workshops designed to bring the facility’s proven Lean Manufacturing practices to the local business community.

“Our global operations are focused on continuous improvement through PPI, and this honor proves that the program is highly successful in empowering our employees to achieve operational excellence,” said Marijn E. Dekkers, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. “We not only celebrate Marietta’s success, but also commit to taking what they’ve demonstrated about safety and efficiency and applying that as best practices at our other sites around the world.”

Industry Week will honor the Marietta team during a ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 27-29, 2009, and will feature the facility in its January issue. The company’s plant was among 10 in North America recognized with this award. For more information about the winners and award criteria, please visit https://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=18027.