National Alabama Corporation Update

(1st September, 2009)

Photo courtesy of Matt McKean/Times Daily  | read this item

National Alabama Corporation (NAC) is in the process of completing its 2.2 million square-foot building that stretches nearly one mile long in Barton Riverfront Industrial Park in Colbert County. Once completed and fully staffed, the plant will be capable of producing 10,000 railcars per year of various types with up to 1,800 employees. AIDT has been supporting this new venture with a customized pre-employment training program and is dedicated to providing a quality workforce. All AIDT employees have a vested interest in the facility as the Retirement Systems of Alabama has invested $625 million to support this development effort.

Groundbreaking for the plant was held in September, 2007. Building construction is nearing completion while equipment is still being installed. Much of the equipment is state-of-the-art with an emphasis on robotic-assisted welding processes. Railcars are currently being built on the first of four eventual production lines as part of a de-bugging effort with the new equipment and for training purposes for the approximately 100 people currently employed. The first completed car should be produced by the end of August.

AIDT has partnered with Northwest Shoals Community College to provide both pre-employment and post-employment training for the plant’s workforce. Pre-employment is being conducted on campus within a building devoted to NAC training. The program is thirty-two hours in length, with half being classroom instruction and half being workstation exercises. Classroom instruction includes safety, math, precision measurement, blueprint reading, and quality. NAC representatives contributed significantly to the program after observing the pre-employment process at Honda in Lincoln. Amy Jones, HR Manager for NAC, said, “We are sincerely thankful for the outstanding work of our AIDT and NWSCC partners; without the excellent programs and support of our AIDT team, this project would be extremely difficult at best. We feel that this partnership will continue to provide NAC with the best, most qualified team members possible.”

In fact, while some of the workstations were developed or modified specifically for the NAC processes, some were copied from the Lincoln program. The team tables, which are also used by ThyssenKrupp, are a prime example of transferring a successful concept from one project to another. Nine workstations that are manned by thirteen trainees make up one training line. The training building along with an AIDT MTU has a total of four training lines available for use.

Interest in the program has been very high with over 10,000 applications received since the start. Applications are only taken online and this was one of the first, if not the first, programs to use this approach. The efforts by members of the AIDT IT group, both past and present, were critical to the success of this approach.

Almost 2,000 citizens have been invited to an orientation where they learn more about the company and the pre-employment process. Approximately 450 people have completed the training program. Under the direction of NAC, one class per month continues to be conducted in anticipation of a significant increase in hiring next year.

Post-employment training in welding has been spearheaded by Northwest Shoals. AIDT has provided training in Leadership Skills I & II, the 30-hour OSHA training course, forklift, and crane training for NAC employees.

Of course the recession has delayed not only the completion of the building, but hiring as well. Previous plans had called for 500 to be employed by September, 2009. Additional employees were to be hired as the other production lines became operational and the workforce expanded to two shifts. The recovery of the economy, in general, and railcar orders, specifically, will continue to dictate the pace of the manufacturing and all support efforts such as pre-employment.

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