Winchester: repeating the success of America's premier arms maker - Winchester rifles by U.S. Repeating Arms Company Inc

Shooting Industry, Dec, 1992 by Bill Clede

The old office building at the corner of Winchester Avenue and Munson Street in New Haven, Conn., is on the National Registry of Historic Places. It has been the home of Winchester firearms almost since there have been Winchester firearms.

An old wooden building that used to be across the street was the Winchester factory of the late 1800s. Oliver F. Winchester himself built rifles and shotguns there on the leather-belt-driven machines. Although that building was a veritable museum, years ago the oil-soaked plank floors and the building itself went to a hazardous waste dump before it went up in a blaze to rival the Chicago fire.

This was the challenge facing those who formed the U.S. Repeating Arms Company -- to continue manufacturing the venerable Winchester guns. While the oldest building had been razed, the company still had a manufacturing facility dating back to the turn of the century. The rambling interconnected three- and four-story buildings pre-dated efficiency in operation.

Updating USRAC

Let's shift the scene to France: the time is mid-1989. The French government pulled its firearms and ammo manufacturing out of the military and formed a private company, GIAT. A profit-and-loss environment would be more cost effective, and make it easier to export their products.

January 1991, GIAT acquired Fabrique Nationale (FN), the parent company of Browning. At the time FN owned 40 percent of USRAC/Winchester, so GIAT bought the remainder.

Two of the strongest brand names in the world, Browning and Winchester, being complementary and compatible, made GIAT the world leader in guns. Consolidating these separate companies under combined management cut overhead and realized economies. Because the European ammo market had declined, GIAT also bought the OLIN/Winchester ammunition plant in Anagani, Italy, in December 1991.

Shift the scene back to New Haven. Don Gobel had joined Winchester in 1965. He was the financial officer of Winchester-Western, then vice president for firearms, and from there to vice president of Browning. He spent 13 years with Winchester from 1965 to 1978. He's now vice president of sales and marketing for Browning.

This puts Gobel in a unique position. He knows the traditions of the gun business and the challenges that long faced the companies operating in that New Haven factory.

"Efforts by USRAC to restore gun designs to their traditional quality were right," Gobel said. "The company simply did not have the financial resources to carry it through. When GIAT offered me the job of heading Winchester and Browning U.S. operations I made it conditional that GIAT recognize major long term investments were needed. They wouldn't pay off for a while. They'd even make matters worse in the short term, but there would be no future without them. I needed to build a long-term position rather than trying to optimize operations for the short term.

"Second, this would be possible only with a new modern one-story plant and investment in new equipment."

Gobel signed agreements to build a new plant across the street from the historic building. He signed orders for several million dollars worth of new equipment. GIAT committed to an investment of $18 million, not counting construction of the new building.

For some time there were a lot of rumors in the industry regarding the future of USRAC. In February 1992, Gobel decided to economize by moving to a vacant building in Wallingford, Conn., but Science park and the City of New Haven developed an alternative plan, convincing Gobel that demolition and reconstruction would be possible in timely fashion. In addition, they offered financial incentives too good to turn down.

Gobel went back to France and resold the plan to keep manufacturing in New Haven. On June 16, city and state officials, along with representatives from Yale University and Science Park Corporation, joined Gobel for the ground-breaking ceremony. The start-up construction began in August. The first building will be 150,000 square feet, and is expected to be completed in one year. If that goes well, a second 200,000-square-foot building will be added.

Modernizing And Upgrading

The move across street will be done in stages. There have been modest investments in new machines in recent years, but starting now there will be major investments. The plan is to start up new production before shutting down the old factory to maintain a stable product flow. Many existing machines are being refurnished before moving to the new plant.

World Class Manufacturing is the modern manufacturing concept in factory redesign currently being explored at Colt. Although it's being called "JIT" (Just In Time) manufacturing at Winchester, this "cellular" design puts people working together in small teams.

"Management is too used to telling people what to do and not listening," Gobel explained. "JIT requires teamwork. We've already started it in a small parts machining cell of 45 employees. It is demonstrating the concept. It brings back pride. The factory worker feels a part of it all."