Electrical and Industrial Maintenance Technical Assistance

Briggs and Stratton’s facility in Auburn, Alabama, was established in 1995 and currently employs 430 people. The plant currently produces a V-Twin engine and a larger commercial Vangaurd engine for lawnmowers. The Auburn facility is part of the Briggs & Stratton Corporation (NYSE: BGG) headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Briggs and Stratton is focused on providing power to get work done and make people's lives better as the world’s largest producer of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. The corporation is also a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of power generation, pressure washer, lawn and garden, turf care and job site products. Briggs & Stratton products are designed, manufactured, marketed and serviced in over 100 countries on six continents.

The Auburn Briggs and Stratton plant was expanding, adding a new production line that would produce Vanguard big block V-twin engines, ultimately creating approximately 50 new jobs for the area and involving a $12 million investment by the company.  "We see this as a strategic competitive advantage because we can manufacture close to our customers in the U.S., which allows us to be more price competitive and shortens the supply chain for our customers,” said David Rodgers, senior vice president and president of Engines and Power at Briggs & Stratton. As part of this expansion, employees assigned to the new line needed training on how to efficiently operate and maintain it. 

Over an eleven-month span, the Alabama Technology Network (ATN), part of the MEP National Network™, utilized four project engineers to provide 305 hours of instruction and/or technical assistance for Briggs in the areas of electrical applications and troubleshooting, electrical wiring, motor controls, programmable logic controllers, and hydraulics. Their employees require these skills to effectively maintain and run production lines.