|
|
HESSTON, Kan. – After a fire that affected Excel Industries Plant 1 manufacturing facility on Dec. 12, the company is pleased to announce that production is back online for the New Year. The fire caused significant damage to the company’s power distribution system, but Hustler says all office power and services were restored within the first 36 hours after the fire.
Manufacturing process took slightly longer to come back online, but because the company was planning its traditional holiday shutdown for late December, the result was only a loss of only 4 manufacturing days, accounting for about 400 to 500 lawn maintenance machines.
“Everyone really stepped up to the plate,” says Facility Manager Lee Peters. “Employees, the city, vendors, and our contractors all went above and beyond the call of duty to get us back to work ASAP.”
Peters tells Lawn & Landscape that several key Excel/Hustler team members quickly identified items (beyond electricity) that would need to be replaced or repaired right away in order for production to get up to full speed by Jan. 2. “Our staff was able to determine in advance some of the equipment and other things we would need to have ready to go on Monday morning,” he says. “For example, air compressors are essential to the work we do here every day and right now we were ablet o secure rental units, which we’re using now, until we’re able to have new ones installed in the facility.”
Peters expects new air compressors to be delivered by the middle of February, followed by two to three weeks to install them properly. Additionally, a new roof will need to be installed and should be delivered in four to five weeks, followed by another month of installation time.
“We’re looking at about four months of repair and recovery time, but we’re very thankful to have our contractors, subcontractors and the community, that were able to help us get ready to go in 2006,” Peters says. “In order to get back up to speed in terms of making up our four days of lost production and also getting ready for the spring, we’ll probably end up working a couple of Saturdays, but it’s well worth it to make sure our customers have the products and service they’re expecting.”