Saline, Mich. — Injection molder MMI Engineered Solutions Inc. on May 26 broke ground on an expansion to its Saline facility. The expansion, adding 55,000 square feet of manufacturing space, is expected to be operational this fall.
The Saline expansion is paired with a newly constructed plant in Monterrey, Mexico, which is scheduled to reach full production in September. That 70,000-square-foot facility will feed MMI's automotive, heavy truck and industrial automation interests and is the company's first reach outside Saline.
“We had a lot of customers saying, for long-term growth, you need to be logistically friendly for us, so you need to take a look at where you're going to be producing our parts; that's what led us down to Mexico,” said Doug Callahan, MMI president and chief operating officer. “So in order to grow this facility [in Saline], we needed to have a Mexico facility and pair them both up, because one is good for the other.”
The new space in Saline will be focused on finished goods and assembly, Callahan said, allowing space in its existing building already equipped with expensive heavy manufacturing infrastructure to be used more for that purpose.
“We're underutilizing space that we have currently that's set up for heavy manufacturing, Callahan said. “It frees up the heavy manufacturing area so we get more heavy manufacturing as a result of building an assembly facility on to it.”
