UPDATED: MGS adds molding facility in IrelandUPDATED: MGS adds molding facility in Ireland

MGS Manufacturing Group (Germantown, WI) announced that it opened a new manufacturing location in Leixlip, Ireland. Formally named MGS Mfg. Group, Ltd., the facility is the fifth production molding plant, and the company's first outside of North America. The facility will manufacture products for the computer/electronics market, along with healthcare and consumer products. The facility has just over 45,000 sq-ft of manufacturing space and will house three electric injection molding machines, ranging from 100 to 350 tons. Plans include the construction of an ISO Class 8 (100,000) clean room for molding and assembly operations.

According to John Berg, Director of Marketing for MGS, the company's Ireland operations is "running ahead of schedule" and currently has six presses running. "The goal was to have a staff of 20 in place by the end of the third quarter, but we currently have that staff in place now," Berg says in a telephone interview on August 23. "We are moving faster than expected because of some immediate molding opportunities that came up with existing customers."

Berg adds that the facility is located on the H-P Technology campus just outside Dublin, and that MGS is also doing work with H-P. Ultimately, MGS expects to have upwards of 20 presses at the facility. "We're very excited about this facility," Berg says, noting that the recent downturn in the economy in Ireland made available some excellent, trained people that MGS was able to hire quickly.

MGS also plans an on-site tool shop to support production mold preventive maintenance, engineering changes and the inspection of incoming transfer molds. This service will also be offered to area OEMs to provide maintenance repairs of molds they run in-house. The Ireland facility will provide multi-shot (multiple material) molding services through use of MGS Universal Multishot Systems equipment lines. Planned value-added operations include sonic welding, decorating, and manual and automated assembly.

This expansion of the company's global operations will allow MGS to increase productivity to better serve its customers. "MGS Mfg. Group Ltd. provides a strategic location which, combined with the engineering and development resources of MGS, translates to a time-to-market response to our customers serving the United Kingdom and Western European healthcare, consumer and electronics markets," said Paul Manley, CFO of MGF Mfg. Group.

Production molding has started at the facility. Procedures and systems are being implemented to qualify MGS Mfg. Group Ltd. for ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485 certification in the fourth quarter of 2011. In addition to its headquarters facility, MGS Mfg. and the new plant in Ireland, the company also has plants in Chicago, IL, and Chihuahua, Mexico. The company recently opened an engineering sales office in Shenzhen, China.