Posted: 5-3-2006
Mission Possible for Metalworks, Fab-Lite

 
Medical lab equipment made here featured in 'Mission: Impossible III' movie

 

The employees of Metalworks and Fab-Lite, local manufacturers of office and medical lab furniture, lent a hand to Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise) and his "Mission: Impossible III" team by building the laboratory equipment used in the latest M.I. film to be released in theaters Friday.
Metalworks of Ludington and its sister company, Fab-Lite of Manistee, manufacture metal filing, storage and laboratory furniture. The product featured in the latest "Mission: Impossible" installment is a sampling of furniture built by the two companies for Steelcase. 
"This is very exciting," said Michelle King, director of customer service and product design for Metalworks. "I think it will be very cool to see product made in Ludington and Manistee in this movie. It’s a ‘Mission: Impossible’ film, though, so I hope they don’t blow it up!"
The medical lab equipment is a new avenue of business for the company.
"We’ve always done office furniture," King said. "This is our first foray into medical lab equipment. We’re excited about it."
Metalworks and Fab-Lite are diversifying their product lines as a way to stay competitive in business, especially with overseas manufacturers driving down the cost of office furniture.
"We moving into an industry that shows promise," King said of the new equipment for the growing health care field.
"We’ll continue to make office furniture, but it’s too risky to keep all our eggs in that basket,"
Metalworks employs 219 people and Fab-Lite employs 85.
"We have a very talented employee base here, the types of skills our people have are applicable outside of office furniture, and we want to provide jobs for these folks."
The local team of Carl Geers, Jeff Funke and Scott Mast designed the new product, which the companies began making specifically for Steelcase a year ago.
Metalworks and Fab-Lite sell their products to about three dozen manufacturers, like Steelcase, who put their name on the products. They also sell products through their own brand name, Great Openings.
Like many manufacturers, Steelcase regularly lobbies film production companies to encourage the use of their products as props. Last year, Steelcase contacted Metalworks/Fab-Lite to order the lab furniture that they hoped would be used in the "Mission: Impossible lII" film. Just this week, as promotional photos were released, it was confirmed that the locally-built products are indeed used in the film.
"Think how fun that’ll be," King said of watching the movie which shows locally made products. "When you see it you can say, ‘That was built right here.’ So that’ll be fun."