On February 14^th, Aisin Manufacturing hosted a St. Jude’s Baking Contest. The event was a huge success with over 50 baking contest entries. Submissions varied from cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, cookies, and brownies. After tasting over 50 entries, the judges made the difficult decision of awarding 3 team members with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. 

1st Place: Taylor Lowry (Pecan Praline Cheesecake)

2nd Place: Lisa Maynard (Sugar Free Black Forest Cake)

3rd Place: Kara Williams (Ice Box Cake)

L to R: Lisa Maynard (2nd), Kent Zimmer (Announcer), Kara Williams (3rd), & Taylor Lowry (1st)

A St. Jude’s Bake Sale was also hosted with team members throughout the plant contributing goods for sale. With the combination of the baking contest and bake sale, AMI was able to raise $2,042.31 to be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Throughout the month of March, various St. Jude fundraisers will occur at AMI with all proceeds being donated to St. Jude’s on March 29th at the New Country Z100 Radiothon . 

With the collaboration of AMI, AEIL, and ALM, an Aisin Health & Wellness Center has been opened. The clinic provides services to Aisin Team Members and their dependents. Conveniently located near Highway 13 in Marion, the facility is open 5 days a week as well as hosts open office hours at each facility. All services and prescriptions provided by the clinic are free-of-charge to team members and their dependents. The facility is staffed with a physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, and registered nurses.

The facility also offers health coaching free-of-charge. Certified Health Coaches will partner with team members and their dependents to help achieve their wellness goals including healthy eating, physical activity, tobacco cessation, and stress management.

Team Members and their dependents can make an appointment by visiting CareHere.com, using the CareHere App, or calling 1.877.423.1330.

Another Aisin Mile Clean Up has come to an end. This year we had a total of 220 volunteers in attendance with 180 being from AMI. Team members worked together to clean up Redco Drive along with a portion of DeYoung Ave (Hwy 13). The cleanup began the morning of April 21^st at 7:00 a.m. Alongside repurposing pallets and recycling items within the facility, this is another step AMI is taking in beautifying and maintaining our environment. AMI has remained “Zero Landfill” since 2009.

While participating in the Aisin Mile Clean Up, a couple team members were able to reunite a Southern Illinois veteran with a prized possession. A Marion man lost a hat very dear to him when the hat flew off his head while traveling down highway 13 on April 12th. The hat was signed and held a patch from the man’s 1st deployment to Iraq and held pins from his father’s marine uniform. While cleaning up the side of highway 13, Jeff McGee came across the hat. Andrea Lane posted on Facebook and found the owner. Khaled Skaf traveled to return the hat to its rightful owner the very same day.

AMI launched their team member portal last week. Within 4 days, over 300 team members signed up. The portal provides Team Members will the ability to apply online for promotions and transfers, request vouchers, view a training and event calendar, and much more! All team members are encouraged to sign up. Our hope is that the AMI Portal will provide team members with a way to stay connected and involved with whatever is happening here at AMI.

For team members who have yet to sign up for the AMI Team Member Portal, please visit www.myaisin.com. If you have any questions or need assistance, please see Andrea Lane in HR.

This year Aisin Mfg IL (AMI) sponsored the Winter Wonderland held at Miner’s Stadium. On December 7^th, we held an Aisin Only Night opened to all team members and their families. The event included various activities such as ice skating, a SnowZilla slide, a snow maze, snowball fights, and of course Santa was there to visit with the children. Concessions were available as well where free hot chocolate was distributed. For those unable to attend the event, vouchers for free entrance were distributed. The vouchers were handed out by  Miner’s mascots Lucky the Canary and Grounder Mole (pictured below).

On December 8th to December 10th, AMI HR had a table in the activity tent at the Winter Wonderland. Donations were requested and with each donation a green light bulb was given. The lights were given in participation with the Greenlight A Vet campaign. The green light bulbs can be registered online. Those who registered can then see all those who participated in their local community as well as nationwide. AMI was able to collect over $330.00 of donations that will be given to local veterans organizations in Marion. For more information in regards to the Greenlight A Vet campaign, please visit www.greenlightavet.com.

Earlier this month, the Painted Ladies ventured to Japan to compete in the 2017 Aisin Quality Circle Competition. The Painted Ladies consist of Dayna Grizzell, Mary Childers, Kelsey Hines, and Assistant Manager Cindy Laur. The team competed against 40 other teams from across the globe. Countries such as Canada, Indonesia, India, China, Turkey as well as our US AMI team presented their QC presentations. The Painted Ladies were given participation awards, but most importantly they were presented with “The Most Impressive Award” for their work on reducing scratch marks.

Their trip began with an introduction to Japan, Aisin Seiki, and the QC Competition. The team was able to tour Aisin sister plants and partake in group activities.  The team was also able to have fun and sightsee while in Japan. They meet up with our AMI Aisin Academy member Craig Goeke, who took them to visit the Nagoya and Inuyama castles and shop at Osu Kanoon.

Painted Lady Kelsey Hines expressed, “We met some awesome people and took excellent advantage of our weekend off. Japan was a great life experience, and we are glad we had the opportunity to represent AMI as the Painted Ladies.”

We just completed our 2017 Aisin Biggest Loser competition with 402 team members participating. The competition held bi-weekly activities that challenged team members to increase the amount of water they intake, increase mobility, watch portion size and include fresh fruits and vegetables, and ensure team members get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep. A first and final weigh-in was held, and their weight was recorded.

Below are our winners- Special congratulations to Biggest Loser team “Two Roses & A Thorn” (Dixie Mataya, Lou Ann Hamby, & Patrick Mcray). They won 1st place for a Team of 3 over all Aisin North American plants. They’ll each be receiving a $200 cash prize per person.

Individual— 1^st Wayne Waldrop, 2^nd Rebecca Zaid, 3^rd Tammy DeSpain

Team of 2— 1^st Fun Size, 2^nd Bulk Hogan & Nacho Man, 3^rd Low Carb Barb

Team of 3— 1^st Two Roses & A Thorn, 2^nd Lose Yourself, 3^rd The Chubby Bunnies

Team of 4— 1^st A.S.A.P. (As Slim As Possible), 2^nd The Shmediums, 3^rd Annexation of Puerto Rico

Last week “The Painted Ladies” took their Quality Circle project to Seymour, IN for the North American Quality Circle Competition. We’re happy to announce that “The Painted Ladies” were awarded 2^nd place. They’ll be taking their project to Japan later this year.

The project presented by “The Painted Ladies” focuses on eliminating scratch marks, which are created by a jig, with the use of leather. 

Pictured: Mary Childers, Dayna Grizzell, Kelsey Paul, & Cindy Laur