Kinedyne Corporation’s new manufacturing facility is now up and running in the Jiangsu Province of eastern China.
Located in the port city of Nantong, the new complex includes four distinct buildings, covering more than 200,000 square feet. The facility will now serve as the base of operations for more than 300 of the company’s employees, who will support the company’s manufacturing, quality control, engineering and supply chain management activities in the region.
“Although the global economy has not completely recovered from the recession, we’ve invested heavily in a huge, new production facility,” explains James Klausmann II, Kinedyne’s executive vice president. “Our philosophy has always been to take an aggressive approach to our company’s future. My father founded the company four decades ago, and we didn’t grow to reach a leadership position in our market segment by being timid. We’ve taken risks before, and we’re doing it again to ensure that a Kinedyne customer is buying the finest cargo control products available anywhere.”
Kinedyne’s Nantong plant will enable the company to control everything that goes into a Kinedyne product – a key differentiator compared to other cargo control companies. In addition to being a boon to customers in terms of quality and service, the new facility will support efforts to standardize a broad range of the company’s products for a variety of global markets.
One of the most important goals of the Nantong project was to expand the company’s capacity to
manufacture numerous subcomponents used to build various Kinedyne products. The ability to control manufacturing lead time on these parts further enhances an already impressive service and quality commitment. Kinedyne utilizes a network of five manufacturing and distribution facilities in North America, all promising a 24-hour turnaround on orders for any catalog item.
Key aspects of the new plant include:
- Metal fabrication equipment including multiple coil-fed stamping presses with capacity from 20 to 350 tons, wireforming machines, robotic welding and roll-forming equipment.
- Metal processing and Finishing equipment including heat treatment and plating lines, deburring operations, and an electrocoating (E-coat) paint line.
All of these new metalworking capabilities, along with an in-house tool and die shop, support an unprecedented expansion of the company’s overall production capacity. As an example, many of the hardware products used in Kinedyne strap assemblies – from ratchet, cam and over-center buckles, to a multitude of end fittings – are now produced entirely in the new facility.
In addition to the new capacity related to metal products, the Nantong plant expands on some of the following existing operations, which contributed to Kinedyne’s four decades of growth.
- Webbing production lines that will support warping, weaving, finishing and stenciling of the company’s most recognized products – tie down straps for flatbed, van and recreational trailers.
- Sewing and final assembly operations for a variety of products, including winch straps, ratchet straps and logistic straps, cargo bars, decking beams and hardware.