JLG Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs) and telehandlers, has announced an expansion of its manufacturing footprint into Jefferson City, Tennessee. This new 60,000-sq.-ft. space, which is being leased from the Oshkosh Defense segment, along with the addition of new lines at the company’s Bedford and McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania-based plants, and its Leon, Mexico, manufacturing facility, will support the increased production of boom and scissor lifts, as well as both JLG and SkyTrak telehandlers.

“JLG is looking at everything from how to optimize digital twins during the design/engineering process, to regionalizing supply chains, to additive manufacturing, to the autonomous and semi-autonomous solutions required to assist a now five-generation workforce and reduce the load/gap caused by labor shortages," Frank Nerenhausen, executive vice president Oshkosh Corporation and president JLG Industries, said.

Heading into 2022 with a record $3.6 billion in backlog, combined with unprecedented inflationary pressures, labor constraints, and supply chain disruptions required JLG to think differently about its manufacturing facilities and processes.

“Expanding and integrating new technologies into our plants will allow us to optimize operational capacity to better absorb peaks in demand, while improving worker safety and flow management,” Nerenhausen continued. “We are investing in the connected and autonomous solutions that will make it easier to do business with us.”

Digitization has enabled automation and machine learning from the earliest stages of design through the manufacturing and field use of products. JLG foresees customers will eventually be able to track a machine from its order stage through the end of its lifecycle, enabling a greater depth of insight into each unit's true utilization and ROI.

JLG’s new Tennessee facility and the additional manufacturing lines in Pennsylvania and Mexico are operational and in the process of ramping up to full capacity.