Legacy Manufacturing: Extruder Expansion

With the aim of bringing the manufacturing of its most popular residential hose back to Iowa, Marion-based Legacy Manufacturing turned to Baker Group. The complex job required the planning, design and build of specialized mechanical, piping, electrical and automation components to support the extruder line for its internationally renowned Flexzilla® hose.

The project began in November 2022 and wrapped up in the summer of 2023.

“It has been a long-term goal for Legacy to bring their manufacturing back to Iowa,” says Josh Poland, Baker Group’s Industrial Project Manager. For years, Legacy has partnered with manufacturers across the United States and internationally to produce its hoses. “This represented a huge shift in the way they operated. They needed a partner they knew they could trust to make it happen.” 

Expanding the Partnership 

The Baker Group and Legacy partnership started modestly. Baker Group managed maintenance projects for Legacy centered on the HVAC system. As Legacy began to develop its plan to bring manufacturing back to eastern Iowa, it became clear that the multiple avenues of expertise they needed were available at Baker Group. 

Specifically, Baker Group’s design-plan-build capabilities—coupled with the trust they had earned managing maintenance work—made the decision a simple one for Legacy. 

“All of this grew out of the great relationship our maintenance technician built with Legacy,” says Nick Juelsgaard, Project Manager in Industrial Automation at Baker Group. “As they began to ask us questions about the project, we assured them we could handle the electrical. And that we could do the piping. And we could add efficiency monitoring. It was a perfect fit.” 

It also helped that Baker Group had a presence in eastern Iowa. 

“They weren’t having to rely on someone from a long distance away to manage the project,” Juelsgaard says. “I mean, the people we work with at Legacy are the same people our staff plays softball against in the local league. There is a built-in trust and familiarity.” 

Meeting the Unique Needs 

One unique aspect of the Legacy project was installing an Overall Efficient Equipment (OEE) system to monitor the manufacturing of the Flexzilla® hose. 

The automation sensors built into the line enable the gathering, analysis and reporting of three metrics: Availability, the speed of the assembly line, and the quality of the final product. The goal is for all three of the measures to run as close to 100% as possible.  

“The OEE helps drive decisions on how a manufacturer can increase each number,” Poland says. “For a company like Legacy that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, increasing any of those scores by even just 5% means that they are producing more product with the same exact equipment. It enables adjustments to be made in real-time that contribute to the bottom line.” 

Sharing Advanced Expertise 

The process of manufacturing Legacy’s flagship product is incredibly complex with a mix of inputs, exact specifications, and rigid quality standards.   

“This wasn't a simple, ‘Hey, let’s teach somebody how to run a touch screen’,” Poland says. “The Legacy team had to learn how the manufacturing process worked.” 

“It's really rare for a company to put in a brand-new extruder line, especially if they don't have any existing extruder lines,” he says. “Just the whole leap of going from light manufacturing and assembly to production from raw ingredients to a finished product was a huge learning curve. But they embraced it and dedicated the resources required to train the operators. It has been impressive to see them grow as quickly as they have.” 

“From our perspective,” Poland adds, “it is a source of pride to know that we helped them turn a dream into a reality.” 

Moving Forward Together 

With the major project done, Juelsgaard says Baker Group remains focused on continuing to meet the unique needs of Legacy—whether that be providing expertise on large capital expansion or jumping in to manage a series of smaller maintenance projects. 

“We already had a great relationship with them just through the maintenance work we had been doing,” he says of Legacy. “Now we have taken another step forward and shown them that we are capable of meeting virtually any need they may have. At Baker Group we pride ourselves on that. We want our partners to know that regardless of how big or small a project might be, they can always expect the best.” 

Major systems that were replaced or upgraded include:

• Piping
• Electrical
• Automation
• HVAC