Representatives from Atlas Copco Construction Equipment gathered for a ribbon cutting at its new configuration center in Independence, Ohio. The first of its kind, 150-foot-long facility, was built across from the current Atlas Copco service center. Staff in the 9,000-square-foot configuration center will assemble hydraulic attachments and WEDA submersible pumps. The existing service center will continue to refurbish and provide other technical services.

Rocky Stacy, Ohio operations manager for Atlas Copco Construction Equipment, explained that separating configuration from service and repair means that “employees, practices, and logistics services can be assigned to configuration and to servicing, resulting in maximum efficiency for both.

“Placing the configuration center at the Independence location makes shipping sense,” Stacy added. “One third of the U.S. makes up more than 59 percent of the market’s ’weight footprint’ of hydraulic attachment customers, basically from Illinois to the Atlantic coast.” The densest distribution area includes Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Corporate dignitaries attending the event included Henk Brouwer, global division president of Atlas Copco’s Construction Tools division from Essen, Germany.

The configuration center went into operation on May 1.