2001 Timelines: 2001-Present

Opens state-of-the-art, fully integrated rolling stock factory unique in the U.S.

In 2001, the Company opened the U.S.’s first fully integrated rolling stock factory inside Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. U.S.A. (KMM)’s Lincoln Plant in Nebraska, with production beginning the following year. The layout of the new factory, which occupies a 40,000 m2 structure at the KMM Lincoln Plant’s 1.36 km2 facility, has fabrication and outfitting lines that stretch 480 meters and which integrate body fabrication, testing, painting and outfitting in a single stream from entrance to exit. Because the factory uses rubber-wheeled and air-lift trucks to maneuver production cars within the factory, the factory floor is completely flat and free of rails. These features make the new factory more efficient and flexible, not only by facilitating the flow of production cars, components, and other materials, but also by making it easy to rearrange the factory layout based on the type of car to be manufactured next.