Mack to Upgrade Lehigh Valley Truck Plant

[kscarbel2]

Heavy Duty Trucking  /  April 15, 2016

Mack Trucks announced it will invest about $70 million in its Lehigh Valley, Penn., truck assembly operations over three years “to further improve manufacturing quality and efficiency and modernize the facility.” 

The investment will cover a 75,000-square-foot expansion to improve material handling and flow; new manufacturing IT systems; equipment and tooling; and a new building for conducting quality audits on completed vehicles. 

In addition, "to better manage and streamline the manufacturing process," chassis pre-assembly work currently completed by Westport Axle in Breinigsville, Penn., will be moved into the Mack plant. Mack noted that Westport will continue “several other critical support operations” for the OEM. 

Mack said the investment plan includes about $12 million in projects that will be completed over the next three years, but were included in the $26 million upgrade of its Macungie cab and vehicle assembly facility in Macungie, Penn., that was announced in 2014. 

[kscarbel2]

Mack invests $70 million into its Lehigh assembly plant

Truck News  /  April 15, 2016

Mack Trucks announced a plan to pour around $70 million over the next three years into its Lehigh Valley, Penn. truck assembly operations to further improve manufacturing quality, efficiency and to modernize the facility.

“For more than 40 years, Mack’s Lehigh Valley operations has built high-quality trucks that our customers can depend on,” said Dennis Slagle, president of Mack Trucks. “This investment strategy will help ensure we continue to deliver Mack’s legendary durability through a more efficient, integrated and modern manufacturing operation.”

Mack plans to include a 75,000-square-foot expansion to the plant, as well as add a new manufacturing IT system, equipment and tooling and a new building for conduction audits on completed vehicles.

Chassis pre-assembly work currently completed by Westport Axle will also be moved to the Mack plant to streamline the manufacturing process.

Mack’s one-million-square-foot Lehigh Valley facility opened in 1975 and manufactures all Mack trucks for the North American market and export.

[kscarbel2]

Mack investing $70 million in Lower Macungie plant

The Morning Call  /  April 15, 2016

Mack Trucks plans to invest $70 million over the next three years to modernize and expand its Lower Macungie plant, a signal that the company is committed to keeping the facility churning out big rigs for at least the near future.

The company announced the plan Friday, laying out enhancements to its 1-million-square-foot Lehigh Valley plant that include a 75,000-square-foot expansion, new manufacturing information technology systems, equipment and tooling, and a new building to conduct quality audits on finished vehicles.

Chassis pre-assembly work now being done at Westport Axle in Breinigsville will be moved to the Mack plant. Westport, which announced 50 layoffs in December, will continue to provide other "critical support operations" for Mack, the company said.

"For more than 40 years, Mack's Lehigh Valley Operations has built high-quality trucks that our customers can depend on," Dennis Slagle, president of Mack Trucks, said in a statement released by the company. "This investment strategy will help ensure we continue to deliver Mack's legendary durability through a more efficient, integrated and modern manufacturing operation."

Wade Watson, vice president and general manager of Mack's Lehigh Valley plant, had alluded to the company's plans at an event in November, reassuring jittery public officials that the company had no plans to move the work elsewhere, despite recent layoffs.

"We have been here for a long, long time," Watson said, tracing Mack's local roots to 1905. "We're here to stay."

Workers were briefed on the plans at a town hall meeting Thursday, said Ed Balukas, president of Local 677 of the United Auto Workers.

"Any money coming into the plant is a good thing," Balukas said. "I think some of the improvements they have in mind will make us more efficient and add toward the quality of the product and position us for the next upturn in the trucking industry."

Watson, who took the helm of the plant in May, was instrumental in keeping it in the Lehigh Valley, said Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.

"When Wade Watson came in, he took the bull by the horns and assessed, can we be cost-effective in the Lehigh Valley with some upgrades and investment?'" Cunningham said. "Or is it better for us to move? Then he really drove forward a plan."

Cunningham said that when Watson gave him a call recently to let him know Mack's corporate parent had decided to make the investment here, it was a relief. Media reports are littered with stories of southern states offering generous incentives to lure manufacturers.

"The decision on [parent company] Volvo's part to invest $70 million to upgrade and modernize the plant and expand it is huge for us," Cunningham said. "They are a top three manufacturer in the Lehigh Valley in terms of employment and beyond that they are an iconic brand internationally that has been associated with the Lehigh Valley for a long time."

State, county and local officials had worked hard in recent months to improve relations with the company, which had atrophied a bit over the years.

That was in evidence in October, when Lower Macungie supervisors passed a resolution in support of Mack's Lehigh Valley Operations, promising to facilitate township permits and approvals for renovations. A parade of local, state and county officials held meetings with company officials to reconnect.

"On the local side, it was reengagement of relationships," Cunningham said. "Knowledge of what was going on with Mack between the local, county and state government had become distant over the years."

The $70 million investment includes $12 million in projects that will be completed over the next three years and were part of a $26 million upgrade that was made public in 2014.

The union has been trying for years to get Mack to bring chassis assembly in-house, Balukas said. That's a process that involves more than 310 people at Westport Axle. It's likely to require some additional hiring at Mack whenever it takes place, he said.

Mack spokesman Chris Heffner said employment in the truck manufacturing industry is based on market volumes so it's difficult to say whether additional hiring will be needed.

"Insourcing the chassis assembly process gives Mack greater control over more of the manufacturing process, enabling us to deliver even higher quality trucks to our customers," Heffner said.

The truck-making business is cyclical, highly dependent on economic conditions. Mack's local workforce has fluctuated over the years as demand for its trucks has waxed and waned. While demand slowed in early 2016, last year was among the company's best.

"We are looking at 2017 being a comeback year," Balukas said. "Even though we had some layoffs, they have been minimal compared to some of our competitors."

The heavy-duty truck manufacturer delivered 27,411 vehicles in 2015, its strongest year since it delivered 36,838 vehicles in 2006, according to a report from Volvo Group of Sweden.

Volvo said last year's high demand for heavy-duty trucks in North America was the result of fleet renewal and fleet expansion combined with good customer profitability because of a good freight environment, low fuel prices and low interest rates. Ninety-two percent of Mack's worldwide deliveries in 2015 were in North America.

Freight activity weakened toward the end of 2015, Volvo said, and the need for fleet expansion and renewal will be lessened this year.

All Mack trucks built for the North American market and export are assembled at the Lower Macungie plant. The plant employs about 1,430 workers and is Lower Macungie's largest employer.

Westport Axle officials could not be reached for comment.

Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/44866-local-mack-boss-out-volvo-confirms/

 

[Red Horse]

Bringing the work from Westport should be a positive from a quality perspective.  Understanding how some outsourced assembly might make sense, it would seem to me the more you have under one roof, the more focused everyone is.  If a glitch comes up, not a matter of an email or a phone call-rather-"get your ass over here and look at this!

[kscarbel2]

21 minutes ago, Red Horse said:

Bringing the work from Westport should be a positive from a quality perspective.  Understanding how some outsourced assembly might make sense, it would seem to me the more you have under one roof, the more focused everyone is.  If a glitch comes up, not a matter of an email or a phone call-rather-"get your ass over here and look at this!

The news indicated that chassis assembly will once more be done at Macungie (rather than "down the street" in Breinigsville).

But the Volvo news release didn't clearly say whether the work would be performed by lower cost non-union* Westport employees, or union Volvo (Mack brand) employees.

Many auto and truckmakers nowadays have suppliers working within their plants to cut overhead costs.

* http://www.mcall.com/news/local/parkland/mc-westport-axle-union-20141125-story.html

[kscarbel2]

Westport opened their chassis assembly plant at 650 Boulder Drive in June 2012.

Ironically, the Westport plant is located at Allentown's Bridgeworks Enterprise Center, in the former Mack Trucks Plant 4* in south Allentown.

* Mack Plant 4, built in 1926 to assemble truck chassis and paint truck bodies, was closed in 1984

In 2012, Westport Axle’s director of operations Allen Fink said average production-line wages would be $15 to $16 an hour.

Related reading:

http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/26449-who-got-the-contract-to-build-mack-chassis/#comment-130616

http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/43123-mack-trucks-laying-off-400-workers-at-macungie/#comment-315947

 

[james j neiweem]

Wasn't plant 4 the biggest plant?