Colonial commenced its operations in 1929, originally under the name Colonial Mirror and Glass Corporation, as a manufacturer of mirrors and a processor of flat glass primarily for sale to store fixture manufacturers and glazing contractors. Through the acquisition of automated fabricating equipment, Colonial expanded its operations to include the processing of flat glass products for sale to architectural woodworkers and industrial glazing concerns.In 1957, Colonial relocated and expanded its facilities to accommodate an automated mirror silvering conveyor system. In the same year it commenced the distribution of flat glass purchased from domestic and foreign manufacturers. Colonial thereafter increased its production capacity and efficiency through the acquisition of additional space and the installation of modern polishing equipment and beveling machinery.
In 2006, Colonial reengineered its lean factory systems to
expand capacity, enhance quality, and improve on-time
performance: |
In
2002, Colonial
began operating under the lean enterprise
model, converting Colonial’s production system to one of lean
manufacturing.
Transforming Colonial from a traditional batch-and-queue production facility where only one glass thickness is ran per
day to maximize yield, into a flexible system where each
thickness is ran
daily, sometimes even more than once, as a mean to better
service Colonial’s growing customer base. As a result,
Colonial’s on-time performance percentage rate and production
capacity has increased significantly each year over the past 4
years. In 2005, Colonial introduced two new product lines:
upgraded
cogeneration system;