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  uropean-owned manufacturers are finding the advantages of doing business in Georgia hard to resist. In the past year two respected Italian corporations have located in North Georgia and, while starting out somewhat modestly, already have plans to expand.
Both the Carraro Group and ATEX Corporation were able to begin operations this past spring, in part, thanks to the thorough and efficient training services Quick Start was able to provide.
"Our introduction to Coosa Valley Tech and Quick Start, along with finding this building, which was just the right size and in a good location, made Calhoun an ideal choice for Carraro," explains Tomaso Carraro, the company's vice president. Based in Campodarsego, Italy, Carraro has several manufacturing sites worldwide, including plants in Poland, Argentina, India, South Korea, and Italy. The company employs about 2,400 people across the globe.
The training done for Carraro was one of the most comprehensive programs Quick Start has executed. Based on on-site analysis, in Italy in June of 1999, the Quick Start team delineated each step in axle manufacturing and brought back documentation of the entire process to Carraro's Georgia employees. In addition to actual axle assembly, the four-week program includes safety training, how to read mechanical blueprints, and how to break down and test an axle assembly. Carraro supplies highly demanding customers like John Deere and Case, manufacturers of large, off-road equipment used for agricultural and construction purposes. A thorough understanding of how an axle works is essential to Carraro's definition of proper training. "In other words, we won't ever have a novice 'learning' on the assembly line," explains David Gulick, the plant's manager. "Each employee will have trained on a real axle, but not one any customer gets." Italian mechanics are on hand at the Calhoun plant to ensure understanding of the process. And Carraro even sent a core team of assembly line workers to Italy for firsthand observation, an unusual and costly investment, but one the company feels is worth it. "I learned a lot on my visit to Italy," says employee Judy Noles. "The people were very nice and welcoming, and I got to see how things were made there which helped me when I got back to Calhoun." Carraro defines its growth in two phases. The first phase involves establishing a core group of trained workers and securing a production line in support of the main customers. In the second phase, the company increases its productivity and the volume of finished products, as well as the level of assembly. David Hartgrove, who has overseen Quick Start training for Carraro, says it is very beneficial to find a company willing to give so much time to training. Quick Start sends three instructors for four weeks to the Calhoun plant, which has set aside a training room as well as an actual on-site assembly area. Future training will include how to look at critical points in axle assembly and how to work on modular pieces that will be added to the axles. Carraro's Calhoun plant is 265,000 square feet. The company expects to have assembled about nine thousand axles in their first year in Georgia. QS
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Carraro, which assembles axles for the John Deere company, among others, discovered Georgia through its sales force in Chicago, which had put feelers out across the country looking for the perfect place to begin U.S. operations. James Ewing of Georgia's Department of Industry, Trade & Tourism was especially effective in helping them find a location.
