Manufacturing is shifting to highly integrated, tech-based processes and equipment that enable greater efficiencies, improving productivity and operational assessment. Crown Equipment Corp. is the epitome of an industrial manufacturer making this shift. The New Bremen, Ohio, designer, manufacturer, distributor and service provider of forklifts and other material handling products embraces the change that technology triggers and seizes the improvements it presents.

Crown’s Need to Expand

Crown Equipment is steeped in digitally enabled management, known as the industrial internet of things (IIoT), which allows it to collect, analyze and respond to data quickly, thereby facilitating improvements. Increasing global demand for Crown Equipment’s competitively appealing products influenced a much-needed expansion of its production capabilities.

Additionally, the company’s high-tech processes require a skilled workforce. The optimal solution needed to promote speed to market and provide both an available workforce and long-term operational cost advantage.

Confidence in Ohio

Crown Equipment, knowing the benefits of the business climate and skilled talent in Ohio, chose to expand its operations in New Bremen. This decision allowed the company to make long-term, strategic facility investments and confidently reinvest in the reliable regional workforce.

A team from JobsOhio and the Dayton Development Coalition (DDC) worked with the company to fully understand its growth plans and location considerations.

The economic development network provided a tailored incentive package that included JobsOhio Talent Acquisition Services and a JobsOhio grant to support the purchase of machinery and equipment for expanding production capacity. A Job Creation Tax Credit from the Ohio Development Services Agency was also offered to support long term growth.

Crown Equipment manufactures in-house up to 85 percent of the components included in final assembly as well as recycling and reusing materials. These aspects of production create a deep regional expertise in equipment manufacturing that could attract companies to the region and state, and create higher-skilled, higher-paying jobs.

Crown Equipment’s expansion will strengthen its roots in New Bremen, where it is one of the largest employers in the region. The company plans to complete construction in 2019 prior to hiring in 2020 and be operating at full capacity by the end of 2022.