Car Wash Equipment & Systems - PDQ Manufacturing, Inc

Since 1984, PDQ Manufacturing, Inc. has defined innovation in the vehicle wash industry.

PDQ has been an operator-driven company since its inception. William "Red" Lewis, founder of PDQ, began in the vehicle wash industry as an operator in 1967. Never satisfied with the wash equipment of the times, he constantly experimented and built his own versions of wash components.

In 1984, Red formed Carefree Vehicle Wash Equipment. He teamed with touch-free pioneer Forrest Burton and produced the legendary Burton Follower® Arch. It was the first robotic arch to closely follow the contours and shape of any vehicle. By 1985, they developed a complete line of touch-free car wash equipment under the name of Carefree.

Shortly thereafter, Red expanded this manufacturing business and introduced the LaserWash® product line and Carefree changed its company name to PDQ, reflecting the company's highest standards in Performance, Dependability, and Quality.

In 1998, PDQ announced the sale of PDQ Manufacturing to Dover Corporation of New York, who acquires highly specialized manufacturing companies who are leaders in their respective industries. PDQ also gained ISO 9001 certification that year, one of the highest recognitions for quality of standards in materials, equipment, support services, and product testing.

In the spring of 2000, PDQ rolled-out the greatest advancement in vehicle wash equipment to date, the LaserWash® G5. Nearly five years in research and development, PDQ applied for seven unique patents on the "G5" (fifth generation) recognizing its unparalleled resource efficiency, user-friendliness, and reliability.

PDQ's commitment to continuous product innovation and the development of value-added technologies lead to the introduction of the LaserWash® G5 S-Series and Access® Customer Management System in 2003.

In early 2005, PDQ introduced the LaserWash M5, the successor to the unmatched LaserWash 4000. The M5 incorporates newer technologies and more advanced features that make your in-bay automatic more efficient, more reliable and even easier to use.

In the spring of 2007, PDQ launched the Tandem® RiteTouch, a hybrid car wash system that incorporates both touch free and friction cleaning technologies using a dual-bridge, dual-brush design. The Tandem has the largest top brush in the industry and provides a superior clean over typical three and five brush machines, giving operators an edge over the competition.

On September 23, 2009, PDQ hosted an industry-first live webcast event of the unveiling of the LaserWash® 360. This new machine utilizes a Smart 360™ Technology package that allows it to adjust to dynamic conditions within the wash bay, increasing uptime and optimizing the wash process. The machine design was based on owner feedback and key goals of providing both enhanced revenue and lowering the total cost of ownership for the owner.

Today, PDQ continues its global leadership role as the world's largest manufacturer of touch free vehicle wash systems. PDQ brands include LaserWash® In-Bay Automatic Vehicle Wash Systems, Tandem® RiteTouch In-Bay Automatic Vehicle Wash Systems, LaserH2O® Reverse Osmosis Systems, Access® Customer Management System and MaxAir™ Dryers.

Open Positions

No open positions at this time.

Our Culture

PDQ is proud to be a great place to work and we're committed to maintaining a positive and productive environment. Not only does PDQ provide competitive and comprehensive salary and benefit packages, but we also foster a PDQ Culture where employees can contribute, develop, thrive, and have fun!

PDQ strives to maintain an environment that is both enjoyable and productive. Because of this PDQ coordinates programs that recognize employee achievements and encourages employee participation in company sponsored activities. We demonstrate this commitment by sponsoring and providing:

• Fun Activities for Employees - PDQ coordinates and sponsors fun events on a regular basis for employees. Examples of some of these activities include friendly department competitions, company outings to sporting events and employee appreciation activities. Some activities that the employees join in are connected with charitable fundraisers.
• Service Recognition Program - This program acknowledges employees who reach significant service anniversaries (1, 5, 10, 15, & 20 years with the company). The employee receives a gift, is presented with a framed certificate at our All-Employee meetings, and is recognized in our bimonthly newsletter.
• Company Summer Picnic - PDQ consistently enjoys a great turnout for our summer picnic, with many employees and family members joining in the fun. This event has been the highlight of PDQ's summer activities.
• Company Holiday Party - PDQ has the holiday spirit! We provide a great evening of fun, music, food, and celebration.
• Production Milestones - We celebrate achievements of significant milestones in the course of our business with catered luncheons for our employees.
• Pot Luck Lunches - Our employees really enjoy food, and we're always looking for good excuses to pull a potluck lunch together! Our employees love bringing in their favorite recipes and sharing a lunch together during the workday. Often collections are taken for various charities the company sponsors.
• "Ice Cream Sundae" Day - Just for the heck of it! Everybody loves an ice cream break!
• Community Support - We promote and coordinate involvement in fundraising activities for charitable organizations in the community.
• Safety Excellence - PDQ is fortunate to have an excellent safety record year after year due to our employees that are dedicated to thinking and working safely.
• Health & Wellness - PDQ has been proactive in educating the employees on their health. Each year PDQ pays for a Health Risk Assessment for each employee. This assessment identifies any areas where employees can improve their health. The company is given an overall assessment of areas to focus on with appropriate activities to encourage better health.
• Charitable Donations Program - PDQ is committed to supporting its community and encouraging employees' charitable giving. On behalf of its employees, PDQ donates to various local charities and organizations throughout the year. In addition to this, PDQ encourages its employees to submit a "Charitable Donations Request Form" if they would like PDQ to make a donation to a charity or organization in their name. PDQ will support initiatives that provide benefits to the local communities and to organizations that meet important community needs.

Our Commitment to Employees

PDQ globally markets the highest quality vehicle wash systems, and we view our employees as our most valuable asset. Our Commitment to Employees provides an environment that is enjoyable, safe, and friendly. Experience the PDQ commitment and become an important part of our world-class, hometown team! PDQ demonstrates its commitment to our employees by:

• Providing an exceptional work environment that is clean and boasts an excellent safety record.
• Providing a competitive wage/salary.
• Providing extensive new hire orientation and training, including written work instructions and procedures for performing job tasks.
• Providing a formal method of performance feedback through annual performance review meetings.
• Providing paid vacation and paid personal time off.
• Providing eight paid holidays annually.
• Providing paid funeral leave.
• Providing jury duty pay for employees summoned for jury duty.
• Providing condensed hours during May, June, July, and August. This allows the employee to work 40 hours in 4.5 days.
• Providing a comprehensive benefit package at affordable prices. Our benefits package includes: Health, dental, vision, life, supplemental life, Short Term Disability, Long Term Disability, Section 125 Flex Plan, 401(k) with company match and potential annual profit sharing amount split equally amongst all participants.
• Providing opportunities for advancement through established internal job posting procedures.
• Promoting continual learning through Employee Education Assistance program and training opportunities.
• Providing confidential Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services at no cost to employees to deal with personal issues such as relationship counseling, depression, self-improvement, financial counseling, and any other issues that can affect employees.
• Providing a business casual work environment for office personnel, plus casual days two times per week.
• COMMUNICATING, Communicating, and communicating:
  • We hold company-wide All-Employee Meetings on a monthly basis, where the President provides a "state of the business" update, communicates upcoming company activities, and any other business-related information. We offer a "Q&A" opportunity at the end of each meeting to field employee questions or concerns in an open forum.
    
  • We work on an open door policy - a supervisors door is always open to an employee. We find that this is usually the most effective way to deal with a problem and it ensures employee's questions or concerns are addressed in a timely manner.
  • We write and distribute a bimonthly newsletter to employees to ensure timely communication of information between two facilities and our outside sales force. We use this to celebrate promotions, recognize birthdays and anniversaries, acknowledge significant accomplishments, as well as entertain and educate employees on a wide variety of topics.

PDQ Manufacturing, Inc., Makes Charitable
Donation To The Twin Towers Orphan Fund

De Pere, WI (September 13, 2011) – PDQ Manufacturing, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of touch-free vehicle wash systems, is proud to announce that it has recently made a donation to the Twin Towers Orphan Fund (TTOF). Founded on September 11, 2001, the mission of the TTOF is to help mitigate the damage caused by the terrorist acts of September 11 by ensuring the children of the victims have as normal a life as possible.

“In honor of the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, we are very proud to be making a donation to the Twin Towers Orphan Fund on behalf of our employees,” said Becky Davies, PDQ’s Human Resources Manager. “As an advocate and resource for the children of the victims, the TTOF really makes a difference in these children’s lives. Not only does the Fund look after their physical well-being, but also provides these children a chance to further their education as well. Some, if not most of these children, would not have an opportunity for a higher education otherwise. And at PDQ, we are proud to be playing a part in this.”

The TTOF provides long-term higher educational assistance and mental and physical healthcare to children who lost one or both parents in the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, or onboard the four downed airliners. To do this, the TTOF provides tuition assistance, room and board support, books and supplies and other educational expenses to enrolled students at accredited two- and four-year colleges and universities. In addition, the TTOF provides reimbursements for approved and nationally recognized health care insurance programs and supplemental long-term healthcare assistance.

For more information on the Twin Towers Orphans Fund, please visit www.ttof.org.

PDQ Manufacturing, Inc., Celebrates 1,000th
Consecutive Day Without a Lost-Time Injury

De Pere, WI (August 18, 2011) – On July 4 this year, millions of Americans proudly celebrated the 235th birthday of the United States. July 4, 2011, was a proud day for an additional reason for the employees of PDQ Manufacturing, Inc., as they reveled in the passing of 1,000 days—since Oct. 7, 2008—without a lost-time injury at the company’s manufacturing facility. This was another major milestone in PDQ’s exemplary safety record. In 2009 and 2010 PDQ was the recipient of the Dover Corporation’s Lowest Accident Incident Rate Award, making it the safest of Dover’s 36 operating companies.

Mike Savignac, left, President of PDQ Manufacturing, Inc., and Scott Vander Heiden, Operations Manager, proudly show off the Lowest Accident Incident Rate Awards PDQ received from parent company Dover Corporation in 2009 and 2010.

“The thing that has really helped put us in this position is that we really put safety into the forefront of the company culture,” explained Scott Vander Heiden, Operations Manager for PDQ Manufacturing. “We make sure we have a very clean, orderly work environment. We really work at getting the workplace in order and take things out of the work environment that aren’t necessary. We also make sure we are standardized in how we have the plant laid out in terms of parts and tools, and make sure that everything is put back in its proper place.”

Since 2001, PDQ’s focus on the highest level of safety possible has included Lean Manufacturing principles and ergonomics that really make safety a high priority, as well as 6S workplace-organization methodology audits that identify where safety can be improved. Two years ago, PDQ implemented DuPont’s STOP™ Safety Training Observation Program that uses the informal observations of employees to assess either good safety behavior, or identifies aspects safety behavior that can be improved.

Of course, PDQ’s employees play a prominent role in the success of the company’s safety program, mainly by buying into the importance of workplace safety and then adhering to the proper safety procedures. PDQ’s management acknowledges the pivotal role that its employees have played in ensuring the company’s unblemished safety record since October 2008, and regularly rewards them through a series of incentives, such as a traveling trophy and lunch for the department with the best 6S record, a chicken dinner for the entire staff after three months without a recordable safety incident and public recognition at all-employee meetings.

“What it boils down to is attitude and behaviors,” said Vander Heiden. “We have a great workforce and that really contributes to it. It’s taken a lot of work to get to this point, and we truly believe that if people perform their jobs well they will be a lot safer. Another big thing is that we have employees who are constantly looking out for each other. That really helps explain why we hold the best safety record within all of Dover, and why we’ve been able to go 1,000-plus days without an injury incident.”

About PDQ
PDQ Manufacturing is recognized as the technological leader in vehicle wash systems, providing superior quality, outstanding support, and products that contribute to our customers’ profitability. Brands include LaserWash® In-Bay Automatics, MaxAir™ Dryers, Access® Customer Management Systems, Tandem® RiteTouch Vehicle Wash Systems and WashTools Conveyorized Tunnel Systems. Products are sold and supported worldwide through an extensive distribution network. For more information, visit www.pdqinc.com or call (800) 227-3373.

PDQ's world headquarters is nestled just outside Green Bay in De Pere, WI. It's home to one of the leading vehicle wash Research and Development teams in the industry.

PDQ Manufacturing and assembly facilities reflect the positive impact of a strong Quality Management System and ISO 9001 compliance. Each step of equipment of the equipment production is orchestrated by our skilled production utilizing the latest in lean manufacturing practices.

What is ISO?

ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 157 countries, on the basis of one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.

ISO is a non-governmental organization: its members are not, as is the case in the United Nations system, delegations of national governments. Nevertheless, ISO occupies a special position between the public and private sectors. This is because, on the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations.

What does it mean to be ISO certified?

The ISO 9001 International Standards, working in combination with PDQ's own Quality Management System, ensures the highest quality standards in materials, equipment, support services, and product testing.

Certification/registration is based on eight quality management principles:

• Customer Focus
• Leadership
• Process Approach
• System Approach
• Continual Improvement
• Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships
• Fact-Based Decision Making
• Involvement of People

It starts with our factory-trained PDQ Distributors providing installation, preventative maintenance, and emergency service and is backed by PDQ's Technical Services. Together, we keep car wash operators up and earning.

Owners and operators of PDQ equipment can find product information, logos, manuals, forums and training schedules within our online Operator Community. All you need is a serial number from a piece of PDQ equipment that you own to sign up!

PDQ is dedicated to excellence in technical support and training. In addition to quality distributor support through installation, wash systems monitoring, service and maintenance, and ongoing site performance inspections, PDQ manufacturing supplies Factory Direct Training for distributors and customers.

If you are having problems with your machine, please contact our Technical Services group at
1-800-981-0340.