Kohler products take me back to my Wisconsin roots

I grew up sixty miles from the village of Kohler, Wisconsin so it was particularly satisfying to select Kohler products for use in two of the bathrooms in the home I remodeled last year. Recently, I took advantage of an extended visit to Wisconsin to head over to Kohler to tour the company's manufacturing facilities.

I arrived at the Kohler Design Center at 8:20 A.M. for the three-hour tour. I soon discovered that I was the only one on the tour; even better, I had the benefit of two veteran Kohler employees as tour guides. Carl and Jim (who was going through retraining as a guide) each had 45 years work experience at Kohler under their belts. They proved to be excellent guides.

The tour started with a short video. Then we were off to the pottery building, a classic factory structure built in 1926, where ball clays, flint (a filler component), kaolin (a fine clay) and feldspar (a rock-forming mineral) combine to produce the material from which toilets, urinals, bidets and sinks are formed. Products in various stages of formation and curing were everywhere. High temperature and humidity are maintained in the pottery area throughout the year to facilitate production and measured drying prior to firing. It was surprising to observe the guys working in the area wearing only shorts and shoes when the landscape outside was snow-covered and the temp barely above zero.

I viewed a number of the original continuously heated kilns, and the new kilns that are being installed over time to replace them. The new kilns provide greater flexibility for firing the variety of products made in the facility and reduce the amount of natural gas needed to fire the pottery. The new kilns, while still very energy consumptive, reduce the use of nonrenewable resources and help keep manufacturing costs in line.

Kohler invests about $200,000 annually in its artist-in-residence program called Arts/Industry, managed by the director of the John Michael Kohler Art Center. Two of the four artists who are presently in residence work in the pottery area. I spent a little time talking with Denise Pelletier, an artist from Rhode Island who was preparing pieces for a fall exhibition. Her work involves interpreting personal care artifacts such as ear irrigators, nasal drains and bed pans in pottery in a way that is sensual at the same time that it is accurate.

The tour continued through the area in which fixtures are made and coated, then on to the foundry. The foundry dates from 1920, when Kohler produced iron farm implements that were sold to area farmers. After enameling a horse trough for a customer, Kohler Company found itself in the business of making bathtubs and sinks.

The foundry utilizes tons of recycled iron and other metals to create cast iron tubs and sinks in a visually stunning display of industry. Red-hot tubs and sinks emerge from molds for cooling, only to be heated again to 1600 degrees before being dusted with enamel powder, then reheated to secure the finish. Most of the handling is done by modern robotics, but there is a small section where workers still execute this process one tub or sink at a time to accommodate small runs.

I finished the tour at the Kohler Design Center, where I had an opportunity to see finished examples of many of the products I had seen in production. Today, Kohler is a diversified company that encompasses cabinets, furniture, motors and generators, resort and golf course properties (including a hotel and spa on the 17th fairway of St. Andrews in Scotland) in addition to the historically core business of tubs and sinks. In subsequent posts, I will look at some of the company's environmental initiatives and then at the unique community of Kohler from a planner's perspective.