“If you build it, they will come.” This quote from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams was referred to Kevin Costner turning his corn field into a baseball field – and the ghosts of the 1919 Chicago White Sox showing up to play. For Jay Menefee, President and CEO of the ammunition company Polywad, Inc, nothing is more true than this quote.

After 11 years in Monroe County, Polywad is building a brand new facility in an industrial park in rural Crawford County. Once Polywad relocates, “they” – meaning the United States military – will come to purchase a new and advanced type of ammunition.

The new ammunition, a 12-gauge shotgun shell called the “doorbreacher”, must be manufactured according to strict military specifications; thus, a new facility meeting the military requirements is being built to produce this ammunition.

“From the indoor firing range to new safety procedures and quality control issues, everything must meet Department of Defense standards,” explained Menefee.

The military standards may seem extremely high, but the shotgun shell is extremely sophisticated and highly advanced. Specially designed to blow up doors, this shotgun shell utilizes a variety of small components to control a tremendous amount of energy in a very safe manner.

“The technology used to produce the shell is really an outgrowth of improvements we’ve worked on for years,” said Menefee. “We’ve basically taken a regular shotgun shell and made it more useful.”

To help complete the successful development of this technology, Polywad has received a $7,500 research grant through the Center of Innovation for Manufacturing Excellence. (CIME), located in Gainesville, Georgia. The COI research grant impacts the process by funding the development of two key elements: one, the automation process of this complex shotgun shell into a working system; and two, the establishment of an approved quality control system.

“Working with Polywad to develop automated processes for the new plant is a great example of how CIME and the COI program help companies innovate and grow new jobs in Georgia,” said Judy Parks, Director of CIME.

Another way CIME is assisting in implementing these elements and helping Polywad adhere to the government’s specifications, is connecting Polywad to quality expert, Dennis Kelly from the Center for International Standards & Quality at Georgia Tech. “My main jobs are assisting in optimizing the design of the ammunition and optimizing the methods of manufacturing,” said Kelly.

Kelly will also be establishing a quality control system utilizing ISO 9001. It is the most widely used quality management system standard in the world. In addition, the government has asked that Six Sigma tools be used in the process too so that they get more for their money. The Six Sigma tool kit helps optimize the project from start to finish.

“Polywad has always maintained one of the best quality products on the ammunition market without formal quality management systems in place,” said Kelly. “However, the government contract requires these formal systems to be implemented, and it just makes good business sense too.”

Kelly will also assist in integrating the automation of the ammunition. As far as the manufacturing of the ammunition, no one has ever needed this many small parts in this process, so off-the-shelf manufacturing machines are not available.

“It’s more complex and difficult than previous efforts,” said Kelly. The prime benefits, however, of automation in this case are consistent quality and lower cost.”

From a timeframe perspective, Kelly and Menefee hope to have the systems in place and the ammunition being produced in about another year.

“With the facility and new abilities that we are developing with the help of CIME and Dennis, we will be able to increase our manufacturing in non-military areas too, such as sporting shotshells, and we are already getting serious inquiries from firms needing more production,” said Menefee. “We hope to triple our number of employees within the year.”

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