It’s Just business: manufacturing moves from Integrated Power Services, Toyota Motors and Sharp Sterile Manufacturing

The business of manufacturing never stops. Industrial companies merge, invest and strategically expand to keep competitive, even under adverse business conditions. Read on for more details on five such recent business actions made by industrial and manufacturing companies, including plant expansions, company renaming and yet more investment in reshoring U.S. medical manufacturing

Integrated Power Services announced January 15 it would launch its redesigned corporate website. In a statement, the company said the new site would make it easier for users to navigate, track repair history, field service reports and sign up for jobs in IPS’s service network. In a statement, IPS CEO John Zuleger noted the website’s utility for the company’s repair and distribution network.

Sharp Sterile Manufacturing announced January 7 it would spend $28 million to expand its Lee, Massachusetts medical manufacturing. The factory, currently used to fill cartridges and syringes, will install a new production line for medicinal vials and upgrade the factory’s compliance with medical regulations. In a statement, Sharp Sterile President James Hamilton said the expansion would keep pace with demand for sterile filling services.  

Toyota Motors, USA has begun hiring new workers for its close-to-completion San Antonio, Texas manufacturing plant, according to reporting from MSN and local news site the San Antonio Express-News. The Japanese automaker’s newest Texas factory is set to begin producing rear axles for Tundra and Tacoma pickups and Sequoia hybrid SUVs. Wages for the site reportedly range from about $35.90 to $47.10 an hour for robot maintenance workers or $22.50 an hour for production workers.

Kimball Electronics announced January 8 that it would open a new medical manufacturing factory in Indianapolis, Indiana, and officially rebrand as Kimball Solutions. The electronics and contract manufacturing group didn’t specify how much the new factory cost or how many it would employ.

Axos Designs announced January 13 that it had acquired a new 30,000-square-foot factory in Long Island City in New York, New York. The custom millwork manufacturer said the purchase brings its LIC millwork production footprint to just under 40,000 square feet, and in a statement said the expansion would allow it to almost double its workforce of cabinet makers and installers once the new facility is fully operational. Axos owner Chris Yerolemou said in a statement that adding production space will let the business take on more high-profile projects.