TPO manufacturing plant mothball and re-start

Abstract

GAF is the manufacturer of roofing products supplying all of North America. TPO is a low slope product offered by GAF since 2000. One of two TPO manufacturing facilities is located in Mt. Vernon: IN. A sister plant was built in 2006 in Gainesville, TX. The Gainesville plant started production in August of 2007. The economy as a whole changed in late 2008 and throughout 2009. This had a strong impact on the building industry, the commercial roofing market, and specifically on GAFs TPO business. With sales declining, manufacturing demands were back to 2005 levels. The decision was made to mothball the Gainesville plant and move production to the Mount Vernon plant. Mothballing a manufacturing plant is a process in which the equipment is stored or maintained such that the equipment can be re-used again once that decision is made. The Gainesville plant was given a goal to mothball the equipment so that a 90 day "start-up" would be able to take place once economic conditions were favorable. Fortunately, the economy and GAFs TPO sales rebounded sooner rather than later and the plant re-opening announcement took place less than a year after shutting down. The start-up process, like the mothball process, would happen quickly. This paper is a document of the mothball process and start-up process. Included are general mothball considerations that would be useful to those manufacturing facilities faced with similar challenges. The success of this process was important to sustain GAFs TPO business.