Manufacturer Goes For The Gold

摘要

Like an athlete pushing his physical limits, O.C. Tanner Co. stretched its capabilities to manufacture more than 800 gold, silver and bronze medals for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City this month. Employing some 2,000 people, the private Salt Lake City-based company produces 10,000 pieces of jewelry a day, primarily for employee-recognition programs, including service, safety and performance awards. Although the manufacturing process for the medals was similar to that used to make the company's typical lapel-pin-sized product, the Olympic medals are much larger. Using its standard process, employees had to press and anneal (soften) the metal 10 to 11 times. In addition to too much processing time, the results were poor.