SAF-Holland has announced that it will be moving fifth wheel manufacturing operations from its Monroe, North Carolina plant to its Wylie, Texas facility.
The Wylie facility machines and assembles fifth wheels for the company and provides enough unutilized capacity to absorb all of the Monroe plant's current volume. The consolidation of manufacturing operations is slated for June 1, 2009. The Monroe plant will remain operational until the consolidation process is complete.

While 13 hourly and salaried employees, at the Monroe facility, will be directly impacted by the move, it is expected that a comparable number of hourly and supervisory positions will be added at the Wylie plant to handle the increase in production. At this time it has not been determined how many of the Monroe positions will be transferred to the Wylie facility, or to other SAF-Holland operations.

"By consolidating manufacturing operations we will have the opportunity to improve the utilization of our Wylie facility, while creating significant savings for the company," said Sam Martin, chief operating officer for SAF-Holland. "It also allows us an opportunity to integrate Lean Manufacturing practices and ensure that we continue to improve on the high level of quality and delivery standards customers have come to expect from SAF-Holland."

The plant consolidation addresses the company's global effort to implement Lean Manufacturing practices in all of its manufacturing operations, along with improved global logistic processes and aggressive inventory control.