The Tadano transition: evolving Manitex

In the nine months since Tadano closed the deal to acquire Manitex boom trucks, an inordinate amount of change has taken place at the Georgetown, Texas, manufacturing facility in the USA. Tadano America president and CEO Dean Barley has taken the lead to transform the 31-year-old plant into a facility representative of the Japanese crane manufacturer’s core values of safety, quality and efficiency.

The AEM Manufacturing Express made a stop in Georgetown at the Manitex plant that is being rebranded Tadano Manufacturing Texas.

On a sunny day in mid-August, as a part of the AEM Manufacturing Express tour, I had the opportunity to attend the event that celebrates the economic impact of equipment manufacturing in the USA In 2025, the Texas leg of the tour included stops at Texas Hydraulics, Tadano Manitex, Caterpillar Engines and LiuGong, to name a few. AEM reports that manufacturing in Texas supports 350,000 jobs and contributes more than US$50 billion to the state economy.

Strategic investment

Georgetown Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Pitts and other economic development officials attended the event that highlighted the achievements of the boom truck plant and its workers, and included speeches, lunch and the placement of a Tadano sticker on the huge AEM Manufacturing Express bus.

“Manitex arrived in Georgetown in 1993 when the population was 18,000 and the average household income was $28,000,” Pitts told the crowd. “Today, 31 years later, the population sits at 101,000 and the average household income is $95,000.”

Vice President of Tadano Business Systems Jeff Grillo and Tadano America President and CEO Dean Barley have been working to transform the Manitex plant into a facility that is representative of Tadano’s core values of safety, quality and efficiency.

Barley presided over the celebration, helping serve lunch to Tadano team members, local dignitaries and the AEM team. In his welcoming address, Barley talked about Tadano’s investment in the boom truck business.

“With the acquisition of Manitex, Tadano has made another strategic investment in the United States and the US economy,” he said. “We didn’t have a boom truck or articulating crane in our product line up. We are incredibly thrilled to be a part of the transition of these products into the Tadano family. Right now, we are doing some reconstructive surgery on the plant.”

In a quick sit-down interview, Barley said he was spending a lot of time in Georgetown to oversee the transformation of the plant, which started with a safety audit and a “rip off the Band-Aid” type assessment of the manufacturing processes and procedures.

“In February we assembled the team here into a conference room for some intense discussion,” Barley said. “At the end of three days, we walked out with a new direction and a strategy. And that’s what we’ve been working toward. It’s about protecting Tadano’s reputation for quality. We determined that nothing leaves the building that isn’t perfect. That meant slowing things down for a time. It meant a lot of clean up and reworking of the plant.”

Refining the processes

The transformation also meant team building, and that started with the hiring of Jeff Grillo as vice president of Tadano Business Systems. Barley had worked with Grillo previously, and he is convinced that together with the Tadano corporate team, they can transform the Georgetown facility into the plant of the future. Barley is working one-on-one with the sales team while Grillo focuses on operations.

“We all figured out really quickly that to grow this business at the pace we want to grow it, we will need to leverage this facility,” Barley said. “We have a lot of clean up still to do, refine the inventory, refine the production processes, refine the quality steps to assure we are producing world class products.”

Already, the Manitex plant looks different. The manufacturing line has a new layout and everything looks very clean and organized.

To commemorate the stop at the Tadano plant in Georgetown, a Tadano sticker was placed on the huge AEM Manufacturing Express bus.

“We did this with the telecrawler business, and that division is now focused on building reliable, high-quality products that truly meet and exceed what our customers need,” Barley said. “We are investing in inventory and doubling down on quality. We are very excited about what’s ahead for this plant, which we are rebranding Tadano Manufacturing Texas.”

Boom trucks that were on display at the AEM event still featured the old Manitex logo and design. But photos and mockups of the new Tadano boom trucks are everywhere in the offices and on the plant floor. The Tadano transition is in the works and full steam ahead.

PHOTOS: BRI CROW