When the Reed City Group (Reed City, Michigan) was selected to participate in a fast-track project to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) in the spring, they turned to Absolute Haitian for the quick delivery of eight molding machines to get the project rolling. Prior to this, the Reed City Group was primarily engaged in injection molding for automotive applications.
“We had to rapidly increase our capacity in order to meet the customer demand, plus we didn’t have the confidence in many of our older machines to provide the required machine reliability,” said John Barnett, President and Chief Executive Officer. “I contacted our sales rep, Greg Crawford, and he and his team responded with the right equipment including very helpful financing options. Absolute Haitian delivered seven of the machines in under two weeks. We added the eighth machine about six weeks later.”
 |
|
The first six ZE electric machines left our South Carolina operations center about one week after Reed City Group placed their order. |
Six ZE electric machines ranging from 44 to 214 U.S. tons and two MA II S servo-hydraulic machines at 225 U.S. tons were shipped from the operations center in Moncks Corner, SC to mold 12 different medical parts. According to Barnett, two are replacing older machines and the others add new capacity.
“We have been planning on selecting a partner to standardize our molding machines in order to meet our future growth needs even before we were approached with this opportunity. Absolute Haitian had the right people, equipment, and service commitments in place to help us launch this critically important PPE program. Their credibility in the marketplace was another key factor in our selecting this important business partner,” said Barnett. “They were highly supportive during start-up and training phase. Our Director of Process Engineering has found these new machines to be much more precise and efficient than what we have been accustomed to, which is exactly what we needed for this special project. These machines are humming.”
The project helped keep the Reed City Group busy even as the automotive molding came to a halt. “Our team members were not only able to avoid any significant layoffs or furloughs throughout this pandemic, but we have been in the unique position of growth; our head count is up 40% from the beginning of the year,” said Barnett. “We’ve gained molding experience with a wonderful new customer in a new market, helping us to diversify our business going forward.
“This particular opportunity has brought the Reed City Group’s team members a sense of pride, patriotism and purpose in taking on this challenge; while providing another opportunity to live out our vision of “Enriching Lives and Chasing Excellence.” Absolute Haitian really understood the gravity of the situation, rose to the occasion and helped us to live that out. That’s what we expect of our partners, and they delivered.” Barnett concluded.
