Manitowoc has bolstered its customer support operations by expanding its Rapid Response Shop in North America.
The enlarged facility draws on the broader resources of the company's largest manufacturing facility in Shady Grove, Pa. It supports all of the company's brands — Manitowoc, Grove, Potain and National Crane — offering fast structural and component repair services for equipment that is too large or complex to handle in the field, acccording to the company.
Offerings from the Rapid Response Shop include fabricated components; lacings for crawler cranes, tower cranes and mobile crane jibs; and structural component repair and refurbishment. Same-day emergency lacing orders are available, while standard delivery times are 24 hours for unpainted lacings and 48 hours for painted lacings. Producing fabricated components via the Rapid Response Shop also means faster turnaround for customers, according to Manitowoc.
Equipment at the facility includes expanded cutting capabilities, as well as machining, bending, prep and paint capabilities. That means faster customer response for out-of-commission cranes and a clear option when weighing repair versus replacement, saod Manitowoc.
"The expansion of the Rapid Response Shop gives customers direct access to Manitowoc's factory expertise — the welders, technicians, engineers and support teams who understand these machines from the inside out," said Josh Garrington, director of product support for parts and EnCORE. "It reflects a broader commitment to supporting customers throughout the full lifecycle of their cranes, with factory-backed resources that keep their equipment working and productive long after it leaves the production line."
The shop now has expanded lacing-cutting capability, with two machines staffed across two shifts, as well as large plasma, laser and oxy-fuel cutting tables. Additional capabilities include CNC equipment, milling, lathe and boring mill resources, press brake capability up to 900 tons, and multiple blast, wash, prep and paint areas. The team at the facility combines decades of experience; the average tenure of Manitowoc employees in the Rapid Response Shop is more than 20 years.
The expansion also has helped Manitowoc make the repair process more efficient for customers, the company said. The Rapid Response Shop has more clearly defined workflows, while its location inside the Shady Grove facility gives the team direct access to the broader factory when additional resources are needed. This means the shop can operate as a dedicated repair hub, while still drawing on the people, tooling, fixtures and manufacturing expertise of Manitowoc's largest facility.
"We looked at what customers need when a crane or component requires more than a field repair, and the answer was to put more of Manitowoc's resources directly behind that work," said Garrington. "We are giving our customers a direct path back to Manitowoc and the support only an OEM can provide."
This story also appears on Crane Equipment Guide.
