Kennedy Valve began operations when Daniel Kennedy started making gate valves in 1877 on Gold Street in Lower Manhattan. After one relocation to Coxsackie, the company moved to Elmira in 1907.
Decades of steady growth included one significant boost during World War II when the Maritime Commission awarded three contracts to the company to manufacture eight million valves for the Victory Fleet.
Now occupying a 52-acre site, Kennedy Valve is today a full-line waterworks valve and hydrant manufacturer, supplying resilient seated gate valves, fire hydrants, check valves, butterfly valves, indicator posts, grooved butterfly valves and an assortment of related products that are distributed worldwide.
In 1988, the company was purchased by McWane, Inc. of Birmingham, AL., and in 2007 celebrated the milestone of 100 years of operations in Elmira. Approximately 400 people are employed at Kennedy Valve and annual sales are in excess of $125 million.
In addition to providing jobs and products for its customers, Kennedy Valve management emphasizes that the company believes another important role is to be a good corporate neighbor by supporting initiatives that give value to the community. For example, the company has a Community Advisory Panel that enables a cross-section of community representatives to work with company stakeholders on issues that impact their environmental, social and economic interests. In addition to company representatives, panel members typically include local community leaders, public officials, educators, union members, regulators, members of the clergy, residents and business leaders.
Over the years, Kennedy Valve team members have helped build playgrounds and houses in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and worked to clean up local neighborhoods. Employees have participated in fundraising walks for charitable and non-profit organizations, and volunteered their time and talents for endeavors supporting the arts, education, resources for children, and senior citizen facilities.
Since 1997, McWane has invested over $32 million in capital improvement projects at the Elmira facility to make its production processes safer, environmentally sound, and more productive. With assistance from AM&T, in 2011 Kennedy Valve received ISO 9001:2008 certification.
One result of the continuous improvement efforts at the company is that a company product line that had been produced in Thailand was brought back to the US last spring. The products re-shored by Kennedy Valve are Rotating Disc Gate Valves that range in size from 3" to 72", and were originally designed and produced in this region in the early 1900’s, but eventually production was moved offshore.
"Our lean manufacturing accomplishments here have enabled us to free up capacity so that we can take on that business without having to purchase new equipment and build new space" said Lisa Rawcliffe, the company’s lean manager.
For more information visit www.kennedyvalve.com
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/5214/2771/1863/2015-04.pdf
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