| In a span of 10
years, Jones Heavy Equipment Products of Northeast Portland
has grown from a staff of 1 to 40 employees and earned an
outstanding reputation for the quality of its products.
According to Gordon Jones, owner of the firm, the company
manufactures aftermarket parts and attachments for heavy
equipment dealers in most states, with some dealers exporting
their products to overseas markets, including coal buckets
shipped to China and other parts sent to Singapore.
“Over 50%
of our work involves custom products,” remarked Mr. Jones –
“parts having special widths, sizes or configurations, being
super-light or extra-heavy depending on the
application.” |
Mr. Jones
emphasized service and flexibility as the keys to success for
his company. “We can appreciate when a customer has a
$100,000+ investment in a machine, and he requires special
parts or attachments delivered on time – to get his machine
working or keep a job on schedule.
“We
design and manufacture parts to meet customer needs. Our firm
can manufacture a bucket designed to dig a certain shape of
ditch, or provide special capacity buckets or meet other
customer specifications.
“Customers either bring us their specifications or
describe a part or attachment they would like to use to
improve their productivity or meet job specifications. We can
|
either duplicate
the part or attachment or manufacture something requiring
special design or modifications to assist in the completion of
unusual job specifications.” He added that Jones Heavy
Equipment produces many parts that other manufacturers won’t
build.
The firm
now operates out of its newest location – on a 2 1/2 acre site
along Northeast 148th Avenue in Portland, Oregon.
The
facility includes a 32,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant with
5-ton and 10-ton overhead cranes.
Mr. Jones
indicated that the company is building larger buckets each
year. “In 1980 our average bucket weight was 2,000 lbs. today
it's 9,000 lbs." The firm’s largest bucket manufactured to
date weighed 30,000 lbs. |
