New Production Facility

New facility facts:

• 168,500 square feet
• 37 acre site
• Products: hydronic heaters, indirect fired heaters, heat exchangers, air movers, dehumidifiers, light towers

Wacker Neuson Corporation has opened its new Climate Technology facility in Norton Shores, Michigan. The newly constructed 168,500 square foot building offers a more efficient, higher volume production of the company’s heaters, dehumidifiers and light towers used in the construction and restoration industries. Sitting on a 37-acre parcel, the new facility features plenty of space to meet current as well as future demand, allowing for expansion while keeping everything related to Climate Technology under one roof.

Wacker Neuson Corporation, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin purchased the Spring Lake, Michigan based Ground Heaters operation in 2006. This new state-of-the-art facility is located just two miles from the previous manufacturing facility. “A primary consideration for locating the new building so close to the existing facility was to utilize our talented workforce,” says Ed Jaroszewicz, director of Climate Technology for Wacker Neuson. “Their experience and dedication was critical to our success and will be essential to our future growth.

Wacker Neuson is using a Focus Factory model to develop two “factories” within the new manufacturing facility. One factory will produce Climate Technology products and the second will be used to assemble light towers. This unique manufacturing concept merges all aspects of the production process into a single area of concentration. The new “factory” is then further divided into a series of production stations. Every employee on the line will know the process at each station, so the worker can move with the product from start to finish. Wacker Neuson started the Focus Factory manufacturing process in 1995 and has realized significant gains. As a result, lead times have been significantly reduced as have inventory levels, leading to a shorter lead time for the customer.

The bottom line benefit for our customer is a firm commitment from Wacker Neuson to increase production, minimize backorders and improve lead times. “Our goal is to ensure quality equipment is available when our customers need it,” says Jaroszewicz.

Interested in seeing more? Take a look at the new Norton Shores, Michigan facility in our brief, streaming video.

• 14.3 MB: Norton Shores video

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