Raye Wentworth has been with New Balance for 33 years, 19 of those in finance and 14 in manufacturing. She is responsible for managing the Skowhegan manufacturing facility which employs approximately 300 associates and produces over 700K pairs of shoes per year. These products are hand crafted through cutting, stitching, assembling and final packaging to consumers. The Skowhegan facility is the home of the Lifestyle product.
Wentworth has great passion in supporting domestic manufacturing and the exciting initiatives that are taking place in the United States around growing Made in the USA! In her role as plant general manager, Wentworth started her lean journey in 2004 and her passion is coaching and mentoring associates, as well as working with them to implement lean manufacturing and TPS to identify the value of processes and eliminate steps that don’t add value. Her lean journey has proven many success stories, one of them being the ability to make a pair of shoes in two hours, compared to eight days in 2004.
Wentworth is extremely proud to work for New Balance – a company that has stayed committed to domestic manufacturing and its products that are Made in the USA. Equally important has been the dedication New Balance has to its associates and supporting communities.
