Peterson Manufacturing Completes Expansion

Peterson Manufacturing Company has completed its major expansion of its Grandview, Mo., facility.
The lighting manufacturer reports that new production, warehousing, and maintenance facilities recently added to its 48-acre corporate campus brings the total space to more than 670,000 sq. ft.
Increasing demand for the company’s safety lighting products, as well as continuing growth in its subsidiary businesses, prompted the latest expansion in several parts of the campus.
Maxi-Seal, maker of custom-designed harness systems for trucks and trailers, is now operating at near full-speed in its new 45,000 sq. ft. production facility. A recent arrival from its former Texas location, Maxi-Seal has geared up in both equipment and workforce to handle current business and to meet the expected heavy demand for its just-introduced SureLock system revolutionary new technology for wiring trailers.
Next door is sister company Vector Tool & Engineering, a Peterson division specializing in advanced tooling and mold-building. Now working in a new facility with twice its former space, Vector has the needed elbowroom and additional equipment to keep pace with growing production demands spurred by Peterson and other customers worldwide.
Mission Plastics North, Peterson’s high-tech plastics division, gained 40,000 sq. ft. of new warehouse space to house the additional raw material and inventory needs of its growing business.
The campus expansion also included a new Grounds & Maintenance building, which freed up space in the Vector facility for more production capacity.
Peterson president and CEO Don Armacost, Jr. said careful planning of the new facilities has led to major boosts in operating efficiency. “Building for close proximity was key,” says Armacost. “We were able to link Maxi-Seal, Mission Plastics and Vector with large service tunnels for easy access and integrating such functions as material transport, maintenance, tool work, and cross-training of people. Everything flows smoother. And smooth is fast.”
Although he’s confident this latest multi-million dollar expansion will serve customers well, Armacost suspects the need for further expansion may not be far off. “Innovation and continuous improvement are a way of life with our corporation,” says Armacost. “That leads to better ideas like the new SureLock system a product with so much potential we may be doubling the size of the Maxi-Seal facility very soon.”