Our
Company:
The William
E. Munson Company is a family owned welded aluminum boat manufacturer
located in Burlington, Washington (1 hour north of Seattle).
We differentiate ourselves by specializing in high speed landing
craft and have built more of this type of vessel than anyone
in the world.
From the very
beginning, Bill Munson's focus has been on designing and manufacturing
the most innovative and hardworking aluminum boats on the market.
With over 30 years experience in aluminum boat building and design,
he standardized a product line of high speed landing craft which
offered a unique alternative to conventional boat design and
use. Today, approximately 2000 Munson Boats are working throughout
the world.
Our new state-of-the-art
production facility was completed in January 2004. Designed from
the ground up by the company's own management and production
leads, every fine detail was conceived with the idea of increasing
efficiency, safety, work flow and quality control throughout
the entire production process. The main production floor is plumbed
with radiant floor heat, insuring proper weld penetration and
formability of metal parts.
Two 10-ton
Kaverit bridge cranes were installed during construction as part
of the permanent building structure. Each bridge crane has two
Abus 5-ton electric hoists that can be operated as singles, or
matched to operate as a pair, or all four hoists can be used
simultaneously. Complete boats, heavy parts and engines can be
moved, at any time, with very little or no impact on the production
line. Two Caston II 5-THB certifed scales allow us to weigh any
item or completed boat, as well as load test fittings installed
on boats.
The shop has
two milling machines and a metal lathe to produce custom and
one-of-a-kind parts. We also operate an Accupress CNC hydraulic
press break to form our own aluminum parts to specifications.
Other metal working equipment includes pipe rollers, pipe benders,
horizontal band saws, vertical band saws, chop saws, and hundreds
of electric and air hand tools. By keeping virtually all metalworking
in house, we can perform on tight schedules, without relying
on outside suppliers.
Our Marine
Travel-Lift allows us to safely move large vessels outside for
seatrials. Once outside, the boats and trailers can be loaded
directly to a commercial carrier for shipping, by one person.
We routinely ship boats throughout North America, and arrange
overseas shipping for international clients.
The William
E. Munson Company uses the Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM)
company wide strategy that pursues the reduction of lead time
in all aspects of the company's operations, both internally and
externally. Specifically, from a customer's point of view, QRM
means responding to a customer's needs by rapidly designing and
manufacturing customized products to meet their needs. This is
achieved by structuring the organization into cells, where teams
run their own cells and are allowed to manage their capacity
and continually improve their responsiveness. Today's
CAD/CAM technology gives us the ability to produce highly customized
products for the customer without incurring high additional costs.
QRM provides us with a significant competitive advantage through
our ability to deliver customized products with short lead times.
We currently
employ over 50 full time employees. We have maintained our employment
level for several consecutive years and tailor our production
schedule to what we have on staff. In doing so, we ensure that
we will perform to delivery schedules, while maintaining our
current level of quality controlled manufacturing. Our experience
has shown that our organizational structure produces a boat superior
in quality, using fewer man hours, at competitive prices.
Every Munson
boat is engineered, manufactured, outfitted and tested completely
in house. By maintaining 100% control of the entire process,
we ensure that every boat built to the highest quality standards
in the industry. All boats are processed identically, regardless
of size and complexity. The same teams are responsible for each
phase of the construction process; framing the hull, hull weld-out,
superstructure, top-side weld-out, electrical, mechanical, paint,
initial startup, seatrials, and final cleaning/shipping. When
each team has completed their phase, it is inspected by the receiving
team as well as the production manager, prior to being transfer
to the receiving team. Each phase has a dedicated quality assurance
program check list that is signed off by lead of the receiving
team and production manager. Any problems that are identified
during the inspection are documented, as well as the corrective
course of action taken. The receiving team is treated as the
final customer throughout the process, until the product is shipped.
MUNSON BOATS.COM
has been developed to allow the customer to build a custom vessel
from stock hulls and over 300 standard
outfitting options. Every boat featured in this web site is an example
of stock Munson parts and pieces selected and arranged into an
overall configuration that suits the customers requirements and
application. A thorough study of the widely diversified vessels
featured in our web site will allow you to identify most, if
not all, the items you require.
Our extensive
library of stock hulls, wheelhouses, options and drive systems
allows our organization to meet the specialized needs of the
marine industry. Many of the boats we manufacture require the
fabrication and installation of parts and systems not listed
in our standard outfitting options. These custom requirements
are easily designed and specified through communication with
the customer. Our ability to meet your specialized needs is only
limited to the possibilites of your imagination.
