Production of new Genie lift begins this month

MOSES LAKE - Grant County can add manufacturing the world's tallest self-propelled boom lift to its resume.

Genie's new SX-180 boom lift will enter limited production at the end of this month, according to company officials. The units will roll off the assembly line at Genie's Moses Lake plant.

Genie Product Manager Frank Schneider said a handful of units have actually already been made. However, those units were sent to various locations in the United States and Europe as show pieces.

"We have not shipped any to end users as of this time," he said.

Although the company hasn't sent any units to customers yet, they do currently have a full book of orders for the SX-180. Hence the need to begin the early stages of production, Schneider explained.

Full production of the SX-180 is slated for the beginning of the second quarter. Schneider said the company is still refining what full production would look like in terms of units per day.

"We would like to be able to maintain a production rate of one unit per day," he said.

The plant currently rolls out more than one unit per day of certain models, but how production of the SX-180 would compare depends on the market.

"It's not clear right now how big of a market it is relative to the ZX or some of the other super booms that are out right now because it (the SX-180) is so new," he said.

Schneider added that initial response from customers has been positive so far.

Genie unveiled the SX-180, which has a 180-foot vertical reach and a 80-foot horizontal reach, during a trade show in Germany in April. It was the company's response to a competitor's 150-foot boom lift.

Improving work site productivity for end users was one of the things the SX-180 design team looked at, he said.

"The 180-foot platform height makes it 30 feet taller than any existing self-propelled boom lift today," he commented. "That's pretty revolutionary when you think about increasing your overall range of motion by 25 percent."

The 80-foot horizontal reach of the SX-180 is also impressive, he said.

"At a 120 feet up in the air you can be up to 70 feet out, that's a long way from where you started," commented Schneider. "That's just unparalleled in the industry today, certainly well beyond anything that Genie's been able to offer to our customers."

The SX-180 has a price tag of about $630,000. Rental equipment companies will likely make up the majority of the SX-180's end users, Schneider said.

The SX-180 can take two workers, and their equipment, up to the maximum platform height in about four minutes. That's huge from a workplace productivity standpoint, he said.

In addition, the boom lift doesn't require any over-width or over-height permits to transport- another plus for end users, Schneider said.

Genie currently occupies a 500,000 square foot facility at the Port of Moses Lake where they manufacture about 16 different models of machines.

The plant currently employs about 1,200 people.

Last May, Director of Operations Glenn Gere said the plant was looking to increase manufacturing space inside their current building to handle production of the SX-180 line.

He announced plans to lease an additional building from the port to house the company's product development team. They would be moved back to the plant after Genie built them a new structure on site, according to a previous Columbia Basin Herald article.

Preparations for the SX-180 line also included an investment in a new paint system.

During a recent plant tour, Gere said the new paint system was a $6 million investment. And retrofitting an area of the plant to handle production of the SX-180 line was an estimated $2 million investment, he said.

"This (the SX-180) is the largest product we've ever built at Genie," Gere commented.