Company News

Palmer Johnson Adds Manufacturing Partners, Celebrates Safety Milestone

Palmer Johnson Power Systems, Sun Prairie, Wis., recently announced partnerships with two new manufacturers and reached an important workplace safety achievement.

Palmer Johnson Power Systems is a leading distributor and authorized service provider for the off-highway industry. The firm specializes in parts distribution, application engineering and service repair of powertrain components. Over the last five years, due to customer demand in the off-highway market, Palmer Johnson has moved into complete service of off-highway equipment, including engine and hydraulic repairs.

Auto-Maskin LLC

Palmer Johnson announced a partnership with Auto-Maskin LLC, Skjetten, Norway, as an official distributor. This expands Palmer Johnson’s growing line of products for the marine, oil and gas and OEM industries.

“Palmer Johnson’s new West Coast facility will provide sales and support for its customers, both current and new along with Auto-Maskin’s line of innovative marine products,” said Jeff Magusin, vice president-marine sales for Palmer Johnson. “One of the key initiatives of Palmer Johnson Power Systems is to offer new products and services to our existing customers. Our partnership with Auto-Maskin now allows us to provide a quality and configurable solution for engine control and equipment monitoring, particularly to our customers in the marine, oil and gas and OEM markets.”

Geary Long, managing director of Auto-Maskin LLC, based in Houston, Texas, added: “With Palmer Johnson’s culture, innovation, and reputation of excellent customer service in the marine industry, PJ is the perfect fit for our products.”

Jastram Engineering

Palmer Johnson also partnered with Jastram Engineering Ltd. this spring as an official distributor. This expands Palmer Johnson’s line of products for the marine industry to include Jastram steering systems.

Jastram is well known for its commitment to quality, from initial design continuing through the manufacturing process to system commissioning and after-sales service. All Jastram steering systems are approached on a project-by-project basis.

The firm’s line of products ranges from simple manual steering for small vessels, to digitally-controlled integrated systems for large ships. Steering systems are built with precision components carefully matched to ensure long life and exceptional performance in all operating conditions.

Palmer Johnson and Jastram engineers are available for commissioning and sea trials should either owners or shipyards require this service.

Safety Milestone

Palmer Johnson announced that it has experienced zero time lost to injuries across all of its U.S. locations over the last four years.

“This is truly a special time at Palmer Johnson,” said Andy Stehl, director of service, Palmer Johnson Power Systems. “We have added new technicians in almost all of our shops and are several months into integrating three new locations from the Mill Log purchase. We have implemented a new safety committee involving members who live in and outside of the service department for fresh ideas and perspective on safety.

“Through all of this, the most important thing is, we are staying safe! A culture of safety does not happen without a team of people who truly care about each other. Achieving 1,460 days with no lost time to injury is a true testament to our dedicated team. Together, their achievements are limitless.”

This milestone comes on the heels of recent safety standards and measures put into place companywide. In both 2015 and 2016, Palmer Johnson implemented a series of assessments to identify and troubleshoot potentially hazardous processes and workflows. By integrating employees in the process through floor walks and informal audits, the company put its workforce front and center, helping them feel a greater sense of ownership and ensuring they were able to tackle real-life scenarios that commonly arise on the shop floor.

Together, these efforts and the contributions of the Palmer Johnson team help drive another incident-free year.

“I continue to be amazed at the tremendous achievements and unparalleled dedication of our entire team,” said Craig Parsons, president. “Accomplishing multiple years of incident-free work is truly an accomplishment in this industry, and I’m thrilled to be part of this team—a team that works together to achieve our collective goals. I’m looking forward to another 365 incident-free days.”