Allison Transmission is the world’s largest manufacturer of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and is a leader in hybrid-propulsion systems for city buses. Allison transmissions are used in a variety of applications, including refuse, construction, fire, distribution, bus, motorhomes, defense and energy. Founded in 1915, the company is headquartered in Indianapolis and has a market presence in more than 80 countries.

What participants will see on the tour: Allison Transmission will be offering tours of the three commercial plants that produce on-road transmissions, with a high percentage of components manufactured in-house. The plants are cellular based, with slightly more than 40 cells per plant. The company is working hard to deploy its operational excellence system more deeply. Each plant is instituting model cells to make step-change improvements to its 5S and TPM status.  The plan is for all cells to achieve this level by the end of 2025. Allison has been growing very rapidly, and you will see many new, recently installed machines to accommodate the increased volumes. Additionally, the entire assembly process for one product family is on a monorail.

Many lean concepts are in use, including:

• One-piece flow
• Kanban
• Kitting
• Supermarkets
• Point of use inventory
• Visual management  

Additional Tour Details:

• Visitor form must be completed
• Steel or composite toe, slip resistant shoes are required
• Photo ID is required