For international manufacturing plant relocation

PORTLAND, Ore.—November 8, 2011 — Moving an entire truck frame manufacturing plant across the street would be difficult enough, but moving one nearly two thousand miles to a different country is an exponentially greater logistical challenge, according to an Omega Morgan relocation team.

Omega Morgan, a heavy-duty rigging and machine transport company, was chosen by international manufacturing giant Metalsa, S.A. de C.V., to relocate a Toyota Tacoma truck frame plant from Stockton, Calif. (east of San Francisco) to Apodaca, Mexico, near Monterrey, a journey of 1,850 miles. The Stockton complex (originally owned by DANA Corp.) housed an array of robotic welding and assembly stations, steel stamping machines, assembly lines, computer hardware and office equipment – all the accouterments of modern manufacturing.

The relocation process started with Omega Morgan (www.omegamorgan.com) photographing and recording the layout of the plant in exacting detail. Next, the team of experts disconnected all electrical and mechanical robotic welding cells, disassembled all fixtures and enclosures, then packaged the entire collection for export, explained Mark Shanholtzer, senior project manager for OM, who oversaw the task.

More than 20 Omega Morgan staffers worked six weeks to finish the job, complicated in part because the delicate robotic equipment required careful packaging to avoid damage during transport. Omega Morgan’s unique versa-lift forklifts played a key role in moving the equipment. At the same time, Omega Morgan managed another critical task – properly preparing customs documentation to avoid delays at the border. All told, 30 semi-trucks were used to transport the equipment to Apodaca.

Upon arrival, in Mexico, the second half of Omega Morgan’s job began by putting the plant back together. Working with Metalsa’s local staff, Omega Morgan unloaded, unpacked, and moved everything into the new building. To ease this transition, Omega Morgan had sent an advance team that worked closely with Metalsa engineers to survey and lay out the installation area. Moreover, the new Toyota production line was an expansion of an existing facility, so the relocation process would not interfere with Metalsa’s ongoing production. Six weeks later the Toyota frame line was fully operational.

“This was a challenging and logistically difficult process,” said Shanholtzer. “Documentation, language, personalities, distance–even working through differences in the metric system, all had to be overcome. But by project’s end, Metalsa was so impressed with our performance we earned ‘preferred supplier’ status, which will help us land future projects.”

Omega Morgan is known as an expert in “turn-key” relocation projects, as proven in the Metalsa Toyota project. Currently, the company is bidding on a number of other projects in Latin and South America, including Mexico and Argentina. Omega Morgan has won contracts throughout the U.S. and in 25 additional countries.

CONTACT: Molly Streuli for Omega Morgan, molly.streuli@omegamorgan.com; 503-295-1918