Smith Metal Products breaks ground on new facility, likely to hire soon too

Smith Metal Products, the metal injection molding (MIM) and ceramic injection molding (CIM) division of Plastic Products Company Inc., broke ground in Center City, MN for a new 60,000-sf manufacturing facility. The new facility will relocate the company three miles from its current location to a new industrial park, and allow for future expansion. The total investment for the new facility including new debind and sintering equipment, all-electric molding machines and automation equipment totaling approximately $6.5 million.

Lori Bjork, general manager of Smith, commented that the new facility was needed to "meet future growth targets and support our customer base." Smith currently supplies customers around the globe from its manufacturing facility in Lindstrom, MN. The company also maintains a sales and engineering office on the West Coast that it opened earlier this year. Smith Metals provides tooling and components for the medical/surgical, electronics, military, aerospace, firearms and consumer industries.

Smith Metals currently employs 25, but expects that number to grow to 40-50 employees as the demand increases. "We are fortunate to be one of the manufacturing companies in the U.S. that has continued to grow in this challenging economy," said Bjork, who attributed the company's success to its dedication to providing customers with value and solutions-oriented product manufacturing. "American manufacturers cannot ignore foreign competition," she said. "We have to do what we have always done best: lead as the world's innovators creating value for the customer by offering advanced engineering solutions to complex problems. Smith exhibits this type of innovation on a daily basis and is proud to be a part of reversing the trend of sending jobs overseas."

Mike Brown, director of sales and marketing, added, "Producing products near point-of-use not only decreases the environmental footprint, it creates opportunities for highly skilled jobs here in the U.S. To maintain our competitiveness we rely heavily on automated systems rather than low-skilled manual labor."

Smith Metal Products boasts that by leveraging its "talented and innovative engineering specialists," the company has been able to either prevent projects from going offshore or to help return projects to the U.S. "We don't just look at a project from the component level," said Brown. "We look for novel ways to reduce costs beginning with raw materials through the end consumer."