By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — An in-the-works building shift for the Maine Military Authority (MMA) may help the business increase efficiency both on the work line and in resource consumption.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
MMA officials are currently working to move production and bodywork to the two “twin” buildings at the Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone — the former Pattison Sign Building at left and the Howitzer Building at right.
MMA currently utilizes two major facilities: one they affectionately named “Blue Goose” (building 8260) at 32 Connecticut Road in Limestone’s Loring Commerce Centre and a Caribou facility located at 65 Access Highway owned by the city of Caribou. MMA officials are currently working to fully occupy two facilities at the Loring Commerce Centre — the Howitzer Building (building 7230) and the former Pattison Sign Building (building 7220) — in an attempt to increase project flexibility and to handle a wider variety of equipment.
According to Executive Director Tim Corbett MMA is already leasing the former Pattison Building but awaiting the completion of an environmental inspection to take the final steps for the company to possess the building, which are expected to be completed by the end of September. Corbett said that the building’s expansive space would potentially become the new production floor.
After production, vehicles would be sent next door to the Howitzer Building, which will serve as the paint-and-body area. Until recently, MMA has used the Howitzer Building as storage for — you guessed it — howitzers, but the guns have already been relocated to a different storage facility.
The idea behind utilizing the two side-by-side buildings is that their wide-open spaces — 119,000 square feet in the former Patterson Sign Building and approximately 114,000 in the Howitzer Building — would allow for a more linear approach to MMA’s assembly process. In theory, a broken vehicle would enter one side of the former Pattison Sign Building and emerge shiny, new and running from the other side of the Howitzer building.
“When you have wide open spaces, you can do smaller programs efficiently, and that’s going to be the key in the future of MMA,” Corbett said. “The day of the large scale program is pretty much done; we’ll be getting more 15-, 20- and 30- vehicle projects and when you have a wide open space, you can change the process and flow much quicker, easier and cheaper and that will help us maintain efficiency and relevance.”
The opportunity to relocate operations offers MMA a chance to decrease their consolidating footprint and thereby decrease facility costs, but that could mean a shift in buildings for MMA employees.
“Obviously if any one of the buildings were to close it doesn’t represent a loss of production or layoffs,” Corbett emphasized. “It is a business decision to increase cost effectiveness and become more competitive in the work field.”
MMA has multiple structures that each serve various purposes, but no definite word has been given on how the building shifts would impact existing facilities. Corbett did speculate that the Blue Goose might house an administrative center with the multiple bays serving as warehouse facilities.
“The good thing is that it will dramatically improve our flexibility to take on large, small, and medium projects at any time for any time of vehicle, and the future of MMA is in working on many different types of and lower quantity vehicles,” Corbett said.
The problems currently facing MMA efficiency is a relatively disjointed production line based on multiple bays, which means wasted transportation and heating costs.
“We won’t have to take the vehicles outside as much, we’ll be able to save a lot on utilities and gain efficiency by keeping production moving forward in a straight line,” Corbett said.
Throughout the potential moving process, MMA has been working with the Loring Development Authority (LDA) that operates the Loring Commerce Centre.
“What we have to work with is a collection of real estate and properties that support business and industry, and it always a question of trying to best match the assets available with the opportunity that’s in front of you,” LDA President and CEO Carl Flora explained. “MMA is undergoing a few changes in terms of their business plan and going forward, their needs will eventually change over time and we’ll try to be as responsive as we can be to make sure that they have the best mix of space to support their legitimate needs.
