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Eaton Corp. quietly thrives — on Gold Star in Worcester — with customized steel products

Aaron Nicodemus

When Microsoft looked to purchase racks to house thousands of computer servers at a controlled temperature, the order came to a Worcester facility. When the FBI needed command and control consoles for its new command center in New York City, the same Worcester facility filled the order.

The Eaton Corporation facility on Gold Star Boulevard, easily visible from eastbound Interstate 290, turns 5,005 tons of pressed steel every year into specialized office equipment and furniture that is used by an impressive list of top U.S. companies and more than a dozen government agencies.

I have always been curious about Eaton Corp.

Once locally owned by Wright Line Corp., the Gold Star Boulevard facility was purchased by Cleveland-based Eaton Corp. in 2010. While Eaton has kept Wright Line's commitment to the United Way of Central Massachusetts, the Mercy Centre, and other local charities and good works, the facility's public profile has been muted since the sale to Eaton.

So when the Worcester chapter of APICS, a professional association for supply chain and operations management, invited me on its tour of the Eaton facility last week, I happily accepted. I figured it would be a rare view inside.

Eaton is a publicly-traded company with 2014 sales of $22.6 billion, according to its website. The company specializes in manufacturing products that manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power more efficiently.

But Eaton has some side businesses that are not part of that core. The company produces Golf Pride grips for golf clubs. It makes airplane hoses. It manufactures clutches and other parts for trucks and heavy equipment.

In Worcester, Eaton Corp. manufactures office equipment — officially as part of the company's Electrical Industrial and Infrastructure Group.

But what is coming out of the Gold Star Boulevard facility is not your average file cabinet and desk assemblies.

Eaton is manufacturing customized equipment for high-end users — companies like Google, Microsoft, Verizon, AT&T, and dozens of others whose existence depends on its ability to save, process and produce data. Government agencies like the FBI, Homeland Security, the U.S. Army and NASA are customers, as well. Locally, Eaton has outfitted the 911 emergency call centers in Worcester and Leominster, as well as the public safety office at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

In Worcester, Eaton's top product is data center enclosure systems, which are steel racks that hold computer servers. Welded together rods covered in sheets of steel, these racks are generally between 6.5 and 8 feet tall, 24 inches wide, and three to four feet deep. They can be customized to include vents and cooling systems to keep the computer servers at a steady desired temperature, as well as having sliding or locking doors.

Five or six years ago, it took four workers about 80 minutes to weld together the skeleton of one rack, according to Lenny Cournoyer, an Eaton Corp. manufacturing engineer who lives in Holden. The the facility has purchased a robot that does all the welding itself. Now one employee loads up the robot with parts. The robot welds the unit together in about 20 minutes. The other parts need to be powder painted, and then the unit needs to be assembled, and shipped.

The facility produces about 12,000 to 15,000 enclosure systems, per year, according to plant manager Ricky Torain.

One of the things I heard during the tour is that the facility's ability to customize orders makes the work difficult to outsource. One tour guide told us that while Chinese factories are very good — and very cost-effective — at making one thing over and over, they have trouble with custom orders. And some of Eaton's customers, like government agencies, demand that their orders be made in the U.S. As a result, 95 percent of Eaton's products made in Worcester stay in the United States.

"The customization of our products and the capabilities of this plant, from both an equipment and a staffing standpoint, don't warrant outsourcing," said Mr. Torain, the plant manager. "We also have a better opportunity to react and be more agile keeping everything under one roof. Actually, since the acquisition, we've also begun to insource steel fabrication projects for other Eaton plants."

Enclosure systems make up about 60 percent of the plant's production. Most of the remaining percentage of its products are command-and-control center equipment, as well as more mundane types of office equipment. A single digit percentage of business is delivery and installation of its products.

The plant employs 245 people in three shifts, down slightly from the 300 employees the plant reported to the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce in 2012.

I asked Mr. Torain, who has only been in charge at Worcester for the past year, what other changes have been implemented at the plant in the five years since Eaton took over. He said the product lines are largely the same, but that safety precautions have been ramped up by Eaton.

"There has been a significant investment in machine guarding, as well as other (Employee Health and Safety) enhancements, at this plant since Eaton acquired it," he said.

We also heard on the tour that 250 tons of snow had to be removed from the plant's roof this winter. Coming from South Carolina, Mr. Torain said he has never, ever seen this much snow.

And hopes to never again.

Aaron Nicodemus can be reached at aaron.nicodemus@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter at @anic89.