Hunter Engineering, a provider of repair shop equipment such as wheel balancer and tire change systems, has spent the last 12 months expanding its service network and production capabilities to better fulfill customer needs. This was done primarily in St. Louis, where the company is based, and Missouri, which is home to two Hunter manufacturing facilities.
Hunter's metal manufacturing is done in the northern part of Mississippi, in Durant. Electronics manufacturing, metal fabrication and assembly takes place about 80 miles south in Raymond, just west of Jackson. To better connect the two, the company built a 106,000-sq.-ft., 37-bay facility distribution center in Madison, which is about 15 miles north of Jackson. Hunter expects the additional site to open up more space for production room at the existing plants, and also speed up shipping times. The finished products now go to Madison, where they are now stocked and consolidated into single customer orders prior to delivery.
Hunter also restructured its St. Louis service center to streamline procedures and more efficiently use available space.This included rearranging teams to remove walls and add more space. An automated pack-out line was also added. This allowed the receiving team to process critical inbound parts two days faster, Hunter stated.
Other improvements included taking the production of bench lathe parts in-house for more quality control and reduced customer lead times. The Durant plant also received a new tube-cutting laser to enable all RX leg and cross-member cutting to be performed onsite. The site also received an additional 10K Trumpf laser to keep pace with demand.
Hunter also improved the Raymond metal fab plant by adding press brakes, robotic welding cells, and a panel former as well as new assembly operation cells to build the new Ultimate ADAS system and the Maverick tire changer. Raymond also commissioned a second full Panasonic pick-and-place line and state-of-the-art automated inspection technology. The wire and cable department also received new cable processing technology to improve quality and add capacity.
“Hunter has always prided itself on not only producing innovative equipment but making sure it’s always kept in constant use by our customers,” said Mike Redfearn, Hunter vice president, manufacturing. “We’re very proud that we’ve been able to maintain our usual standard of performance despite numerous supply chain obstacles.”
