May 3, 2018

Gage Brothers Concrete Products is making progress on its new home in northeast Sioux Falls, but the activity is just as robust inside the current facility preparing for the move.

The 200,000-square-foot structure is up at 2800 N. Bahnson Ave., and construction is moving inside on schedule.

Equipment is starting to be installed, floors are being poured, and offices are being built.

“Over the next three or four months, most of the (manufacturing) processes will get put in, so it will really change,” president Tom Kelley said. “It will start getting pretty crowded even though it’s a big building.”

The first manufacturing process is scheduled to move in in September, with everything transferred from Gage’s West 12th Street location by the beginning of next year.

The $40 million facilitiy is being designed as the most automated and efficient precast plant in North America and will increase Gage’s size by 50 percent.

Employees are able to visit the new site frequently. A 12-passenger bus, dubbed the Gage Express, shuttles them from the west side to the east every Friday. Over lunch, employees can take a ride to the new site and learn more about what’s happening there.

“It’s important. People will start getting more and more comfortable,” Kelley said.

The equipment is being imported from Europe, and staff members are starting to train on it through webinars.

To further prepare the company’s almost 300 employees for a move that will change not only their location but also the way many jobs are performed, Gage has been intentional about making a cultural shift.

The company hired a consultant and surveyed employees about the type of culture they want.

“We spent a lot of time, but it was really to get everyone aligned around one goal and give people the autonomy and resources to go do it,” Kelley said.

Embracing lean methods of doing business, Gage is setting out to optimize each of its processes from the bottom up, he said.

“When you do that and you give people freedom to go do what we need them to do, we’ve seen some tremendous blossoming of our future leaders,” Kelley said. “We’ve seen people take it and run, and that’s been exciting to watch.”

Gage Brothers’ $40M project planned as nation’s most automated precast plant