Vicwest to expand manufacturing facility in Ontario

Dec. 4, 2017 – Vicwest has secured site plan approval with the town of Stratford, Ont., to expand its current manufacturing facilities.

“With the expansion of the Stratford manufacturing location, this allows Vicwest to amalgamate their Ontario based operations into one centralized location,” said Bernard Lewis, senior vice-president of operations at Vicwest. “Currently, the industrial mills have been operating from our Oakville, Ontario location. This buildout will allow for the Oakville mills to be moved to the expanded Stratford facility.”

The move of the equipment from the Oakville facility to the expanded Stratford location is a strategic one, says the company, helping Vicwest to better serve its customers. “Streamlining the manufacturing to one central location will provide the opportunity for our products to ship from one centralized location, versus a second pick up,” it notes.

According to Vicwest, the Stratford Centre of Excellence expansion will offer the following:

• Optimized floor space achieved through lean manufacturing principles;
• Increased mill operations speed as a result of VF drives and servo controls;
• Lean principles applied to material flow from loading to shipping, striving to enhance overall efficiencies by reducing time and costs;
• Automated stackers at the end of mills; and
• Future automated wrapping of materials.