The addition of new product lines will keep Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp.'s Greenwood plant busy for the rest of the year, but they have their eyes on the long term as well.
Milwaukee Tool announced this month that by the end of the year it will add two lines of saw blades and one line of hole saws to the one line of blades it already produces.
The company will hire about 50 people this year to work on the new lines, which now are being produced at the company's headquarters in Wisconsin.
The space for this was available after a 75,000-square-foot expansion that was completed last spring. The plant was already producing Sawzalls, the company's signature group of saws.
The plant's manager, Danny Temple, said the high-tech robotic equipment will require a new level of skill. It is a big change from the manual assembly lines used to make the plant's other products.
"This part of the business is very capital-intensive," Temple said. "The capital equipment is very expensive, but you don't have as much labor involved."
Temple said that when the plant started work in January 2002, the expectations were high. Since then, it's been a progression from one big project to the next.
"Since we've been in Greenwood, we really haven't had much breathing room," he said. "We've been in a state of startup, a state of constant change, adding more work, adding more people - which is good. It's good, and it's fun. But it has its problems as well."
Now, he said, after a brief period of "breathing room," they head into about 10 months of moving, transition and startup for the new lines.
But this was to be expected, Temple said.
"We told the community we had big plans, and we've lived up to those plans," he said.
Temple said the plant has fared well in hiring and productivity while also maintaining a good relationship with the company's other sites.
"The plant has been very successful," he said. "We've found good people who can get the job done. And it continues to be productive. It continues to be a very good thing for us and, I think, for the community as well."
As the management juggles short-term and long-term planning, those in charge of sales and marketing also are trying every day to increase the company's market position, he said.
They are looking at ways to improve productivity and efficiency and meet customer demands on lead time, delivery, quality, price and other factors. They also must consider the growing competition from foreign countries, he said.
"You can't stand still. If you do, you'll get passed by in a hurry," he said. "So you have to be improving at a rate good enough to keep up with everybody else, because they're changing. Everybody else is moving, too. There's no sitting targets out there anymore."
Temple said those in the plant must have the flexibility to adjust to any trend in sales, whether it is an increase or a decrease.
"We like the smooth, even flow of orders day after day, but it doesn't happen that way," he said.
And the forecasts for sales are bright. As some other sectors of the economy improve, Milwaukee Tool can expect to take on more business, he said.
"If you see housing increase, then our business usually goes up," he said. "If you see construction pick up, then our business usually picks up, too."
