IMC Supports Shop-Vac in Williamsport Plant Reopening

written by Lauri Moon | December 7, 2021

Photo Credit: Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Shop-Vac is the brand leader in wet / dry vacuum systems for consumer and commercial use.  In 2020, the company abruptly shut down, but was recently purchased by Great Star Industrial, Inc.  Shop-Vac rehired many previous employees and is currently operating with about 150 people.  Given the shutdown, the company’s emphasis at this time is to increase sales quickly by re-establishing relationships with customers that range from big box retailers such as Lowe’s and Home Depot to smaller sellers and industrial purchasers.  Additionally, Great Star acquired the well-established SK Hand Tools.  As part of the SK acquisition strategy, SK tool-making equipment has been relocated from Chicago to the Shop-Vac facility on Reach Road in Williamsport.  With the equipment onsite and ready to start production, Shop Vac is hiring and training about 15 additional people to produce SK Tools.

To support the re-establishment of customer relationships for Shop-Vac products and to begin selling and supporting the SK brand locally, Shop-Vac is working with IMC to make improvements in their Customer Service operations.  IMC will be working with the Customer Service team to perform a three-day value stream mapping (VSM) initiative that will include training in continuous improvement principles and practices to enable the group to work on improvement opportunities, defining the current state of operations, identifying opportunities for improvement, creating a future / desired state, and then continuous work towards the future state.

To support the implementation of the value stream initiative, IMC and PennTAP are also working together to implement an E3 (energy, environmental, efficiency) initiative that will both support the of the VSM as well as provide energy reduction and environmental improvement opportunities.

Sandy Fox assembles a Shop-Vac vacuum cleaner on the company’s assembly line in Williamsport, Pa. Photo credit: Steven M. Falk, Williamsport Sun-Gazette