The Jasper Authentic Custom Drivetrain Division recently moved from its second floor layout within the Wernsing Road engine remanufacturing facility in Jasper, Indiana. The division now has its own Authentic production work area, or POD, located on the first floor, joining the rest of the Gas Division associates.
“We’re very excited about this new area,” said Darren Ragsdale, JASPER Authentic/Performance Manager. “We’ve been able to update some of our machinery and implement new cleaning methods. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
The move put to rest all the challenges experienced by the Authentic Division to maintain manufacturing, and product flow management, away from their support areas. “We had a journey to take our finished engines to our test equipment and shipping area,” said Ragsdale. “We would assemble a unit upstairs, take it down an elevator, then travel across the plant to our test stand, then to shipping. It really added to the time it took to get the unit out the door.”
Now in the new work area, the Authentic Division has its own live run test stand. “The nice thing about that is our builder is right there to monitor what’s going on with that engine,” said Ragsdale. “If we run into something that needs adjustment, we no longer have to make a journey to the test stand operator when called.”
The new JASPER Authentic work area is a mirror image of the other Gas Division PODs. In the past, the division was dependent on other departments to perform various cleaning tasks. Now, they have their own cleaning systems, media blast cabinets and tumblers.
In addition to custom drivetrain remanufacturing, the Authentic division is remanufacturing the GM 3.8L (231) V6 and Ford 7.5L (460) V8 as exchange engines.
