K&B Machine to build new manufacturing, headquarters facility in Louisiana

Pipe manufacturer K&B Machine has announced plans to create a 200,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing and headquarters facility in Schriever, La. The site, about 13 miles north of the company's current Houma, La., complex, already is home to a 42,000-sq.-ft. customer inventory building. The project is expected to create 80 construction jobs for the roughly one-year construction term.

Drawing on efficiency modeling by the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Louisiana (MEPOL), K&B discovered it could gain a 40 percent boost in efficiency by consolidating its current 11-building complex into a single manufacturing complex. It will move from its current location to the new 35-acre site in early 2013, creating 20 jobs.

K&B serves the oilfield and natural gas manufacturing industries through five divisions: full-length threading, tubular accessories, welding and fabrication, manufacturing, and customer inventory control.