INTRODUCTION:
The William E. Munson Company, Inc. is a family owned boat manufacturer located in Burlington, Washington (1 hour north of Seattle). We differentiate ourselves by specializing only in high speed welded aluminum landing craft and have built more of this type of vessel than anyone in the world. Every Munson boat is designed and built to perform in rough water, as well as shallow water, as beaching ability is essential to the boat's operation. We believe that our product is the highest quality and the most versatile platform available on the market. The PACKMAN mono hull & PACKCAT catamaran incorporate a large standard bow door for multi-purpose functionality not available in other boat designs, while offering high performance handling characteristics that have been proven in the harshest marine environments.
HISTORY:
Bill Munson founded the William E. Munson Company in 1994. From the very beginning, the company's focus has been on designing and manufacturing high speed landing craft. After selling his previous company, Munson Manufacturing, Bill Munson embarked on a mission of developing a new product line of aluminum boats which would have performance capabilities like no other boat on the market. With over 30 years experience in aluminum boat building and design, he standardized a product line of high speed landing craft which offered a unique alternative to conventional boat design and use. Today, approximately 2000 Munson Boats are working throughout the world, of which over 500 are high speed landing craft.

PRODUCTION FACILITY:
The William E. Munson Company's new state-of-the-art production facility was completed in January 2004. Designed from the ground up by the company's own management and production leads, every fine detail was conceived with the idea of increasing efficiency, safety, work flow and quality control throughout the entire production line. The 16,200 square foot building is plumbed with radiant floor heat, which insures that even on the coldest winter day, all the equipment, parts and boats in process remain at 60+ degrees, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to insure proper weld penetration and formability of metal parts.

Two 10-ton Kaverit bridge cranes were installed during construction as part of the permanent building structure. Each bridge crane has two Abus 5-ton electric hoists that can be operated as singles, or matched to operate as a pair, or all four hoists can be used simultaneously. Boats, heavy parts and engines can be moved, at any time, with very little or no impact on the production line. Two Caston II 5-THB Load Cells allow us to scale weigh any item or completed boat, as well as load test fittings installed on boats.

PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT:
We currently operate twenty-five Miller welding machines. A central gas mixing station (helium/argon) provides all the welding machines the same gas mixture throughout the entire facility. Another step to help insure welding uniformity, penetration and quality. An automated telemetry system ensures the central gas system is always operating properly and never runs low on welding gas. Production welders never have to change out gas bottles, therefore, they become more efficient.

The shop has two milling machines, (a new machine was just purchased 2007) to assist in the production of custom and one-of-a-kind parts. A new metal lathe was also purchased to speed up production. We also operate an Accupress Sixty Ton x10 foot CNC hydraulic press break to form our own aluminum parts to specifications. Other metal working equipment includes pipe rollers, pipe benders, horizontal band saws, vertical band saws, chop saws, and hundreds of electric and air hand tools. By keeping virtually all metalworking in house, we can perform on tight schedules, without relying on outside suppliers.
TESTING & SHIPPING:
We own a 15 ton Marine Travel-Lift. The 30,000 lb capacity lift allows us to safely move boats outside for seatrials and move boats too large to be put on a private trailer. Once outside, the boats and boat trailers can be loaded directly to a commercial carrier for shipping, by one person. We routinely ship boats to North American destinations, and can help arrange overseas shipping for international clients.
PRODUCTION CAPABILITIES:
We currently employ over 40 full time employees with 100 years combined experience in welded aluminum boat building. Our average production rate produces 45-50 vessels annually. We typically have 7-9 units in production, ranging from 21 feet to 54 feet, at any given time. We have maintained our employment level for several consecutive years, without sharp increases or decreases in the number of our production employees, and tailor our production schedule to what we currently have on staff. In doing so, we will ensure that we will perform to delivery schedules, while maintaining our current level of quality controlled manufacturing. Our experience has shown that a smaller organization, with relatively low turn-over, produces a boat superior in weld quality, durability, fit and finish, using fewer man hours.
QUICK RESPONSE MANUFACTURING:
The William E. Munson Company uses the Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) company wide strategy that pursues the reduction of lead time in all aspects of the company's operations, both internally and externally. Specifically, from a customer's point of view, QRM means responding to a customer's needs by rapidly designing and manufacturing customized products to meet their needs. This is achieved by structuring the organization into cells, where teams run their own cells and are allowed to manage their capacity and continually improve their responsiveness. Today's CAD/CAM technology gives us the ability to produce highly customized products for the customer without incurring high additional costs. QRM provides us with a significant competitive advantage through our ability to deliver customized products with short lead times. Our experienced manufacturing team produces a boat superior in terms of weld quality, durability and craftsmanship.
QUALITY CONTROL:
Every Munson boat is engineered, manufactured, outfitted and tested completely in house. By maintaining 100% control of the entire process, we ensure that every boat built to the highest quality standards in the industry. All boats are processed identically, regardless of size and complexity. The same teams are responsible for each phase of the construction process; framing the hull, hull weld-out, superstructure, top-side weld-out, electrical, mechanical, paint, initial startup, seatrials, and final cleaning/shipping. When each team has completed their phase, it is inspected by the receiving team as well as the production manager, prior to being transfer to the receiving team. Each phase has a dedicated quality assurance program check list that is signed off by lead of the receiving team and production manager. Any problems that are identified during the inspection are documented, as well as the corrective course of action taken. The receiving team is treated as the final customer throughout the process, until the product is shipped.
CUSTOM BUILT TO ORDER:
MUNSON BOATS.COM has been developed to allow the customer to build a custom vessel from stock hulls and over 300 standard outfitting options. Every boat featured in this web site is an example of stock Munson parts and pieces selected and arranged into an overall configuration that suits the customers requirements and application. A thorough study of the widely diversified vessels featured in our web site will allow you to identify most, if not all, the items you require.
EXPERIENCE:
Our extensive library of stock hulls, wheelhouses, options and drive systems allows our organization to meet the specialized needs of the marine industry. Many of the boats we manufacture require the fabrication and installation of parts and systems not listed in our standard outfitting options. These custom requirements are easily designed and specified through communication with the customer. Our ability to meet your specialized needs is only limited to the possibilites of your imagination.		 

William E. Munson Company, Incorporated
15806 Preston Place, Burlington, WA USA 98233
Phone: (425) 672 - 4634    Fax: (425) 774 - 2408
All boats available on GSA Contract GS-07F-0442M.
Last Updated June 26, 2007 by Jesse Munson, VP
Copyright 1997-2007. All rights reserved.