On May 15, Stanley Black & Decker announced that it will expand its U.S. manufacturing footprint with a new Craftsman manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, Texas. The groundbreaking for the 425,000-square-foot facility will take place this summer, and the plant is expected to be completed in late 2020.
The new plant will manufacture a wide range of Craftsman mechanics tools, including sockets, ratchets, wrenches and general sets. The plant will also leverage some of the most advanced manufacturing technologies available to optimize productivity and sustainability, including pre-flattening steel technologies to improve material yield by almost 25 percent, as well as water and energy management technologies to reduce resource consumption. The Fort Worth plant will employ approximately 500 full-time employees to support the facility.
“When we purchased Craftsman in 2017, we were determined to revitalize this iconic U.S. brand and bring back its American manufacturing heritage,” says Stanley Black & Decker president and CEO Jim Loree. “From the launch of Craftsman’s refreshed brand identity last year to our announcement of the first new manufacturing facility in many years, we’re demonstrating our continued commitment to grow the brand and bring even more production of these great products back to the United States.”
Stanley Black & Decker purchased Craftsman in 2017 and unveiled more than 1,200 new products last August. The brand is now on pace for an accelerated growth trajectory to reach $1 billion in incremental revenues by 2021.
“This new plant will also be the latest in our network of manufacturing facilities — one that uses state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies and demonstrates our commitment to becoming one of the world’s leaders in advanced manufacturing,” Loree continues.
Stanley Black & Decker currently operates approximately 30 manufacturing facilities in the United States, with more than 100 manufacturing facilities globally. The company has five locations that have started implementing advanced Industry 4.0 technologies across their facilities, from manufacturing execution systems (MES), to 3-D printing, virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Last month, Stanley Black & Decker also opened a new 23,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence, called “Manufactory 4.0”, in Hartford, Connecticut. The facility is the focal point of the company’s global Industry 4.0 “smart factory” initiative, housing a team of approximately 50 Industry 4.0 experts focused on accelerating the company’s adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and programs to help prepare the company’s workforce for today’s digital-led manufacturing environment.
Stanley Black & Decker is a $14-billion revenue, purpose-driven industrial organization. The company has 61,000 employees in more than 60 countries and operates the world’s largest tools and storage business, the world’s second-largest commercial electronic security services company and a leading engineered fastening business, among others. The company’s iconic brands include Black & Decker, Bostitch, Craftsman, DeWALT, FACOM, Irwin, Lenox, Porter-Cable and Stanley.
For more information about Craftsman and its U.S. manufacturing footprint, click here.
