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Windings preparing for move to new home

NEW ULM — Windings, Inc., has grown and expanded since its establishment in 1965, leasing space here and there to meet its expansion needs until it was housed in three different buildings in New Ulm. This year it will be moving its whole operation under one roof after it acquired the former Elkay Manufacturing building in the New Ulm Industrial Park.

But making that move is a long process requiring a lot of planning and preparation, said Seth Visser, Director of Capital Projects at Windings. He’s the man in charge of getting 130 employees, about a dozen 10-ton machines and dozens of other work stations precisely placed so the company can continue to do its business with a minimum of disruption for its customers.

“It’s not like packing up the house and moving it all at once,” he says.

The planning for the project began a couple of years ago, when the employee-owned company saw the opportunity to purchase the Elkay plant in New Ulm. The plant, built in 2004, was fairly new, in good shape, and featured a wide-open production area that would allow Windings a blank slate for setting up its production area.

Windings broke ground last February on a 10,000 square foot addition that adds room for administration, sales and engineering offices. Last October, it moved some of its production, from its Front Street location, to the new building. Windings expects to move all operations to its new facilities by mid November this year.

The process is more complicated than deciding where work stations and equipment are going to be located, then moving it.

Windings makes custom electrical motors, custom stators and rotors for a wide variety of industrial applications — aerospace, auto sports, aeronautics, defense contracts, medical devices and automation equipment. It has to communicate with its customers before the move, letting them know when they will be moving and where they will be moving. With some high-tech customers, Windings has to undergo recertification before the move. With others they have to build up and inventory of the motors and components the customers will need to keep them supplied while the move is taking place.

Windings has about a dozen large pieces of equipment weighing in excess of 20,000 pounds to move, and another 24 smaller pieces. But Visser said the real challenge is moving the individual work stations and getting them set up quickly with little down time. Much of the production work is done by hand, so employees will be working to get their stations moved and ready to go.

The move will increase the efficiency and communications within the company. Right now, a courier makes runs every day to bring parts and components from one location to where they are needed at another. Having everyone under one roof will allow the work to flow that much faster.

It will also build communications at the company, which is an employee-owned ESOP company.

Company CEO Heather Braimbridge-Cox said the company relies on an open, transparent form of management. All the employee-owners get regular reports on operations, and regular meetings are held to talk over how things are going and where the company can do better. Having everyone in the same building will increase that communication.

Visser said the completion of the move at Windings will be a big job finished, but there are still plenty of capital projects he will be working on. Windings is looking to the future, knowing that the new plant facilities could become crowded in a few years if business grows as expected. There is ample room on the company’s campus for additions and expansions when that happens.

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