Power and Integration

Anderson Industrial Engines
Written by Robert Hoshowsky

Anderson Industrial Engines, known to most clients as AIE, distributes engines, electrical generators, parts, power units, and more from the world’s leading manufacturers. AIE represents well-known brands such as Kubota, JCB, American Honda, the Ford Motor Company, and Fiat Powertrain Technologies. The company’s products are almost exclusively destined for off-highway equipment, with customers in related industries including construction, agriculture, and equipment rental as well as those needing pumps or generators.

AIE provides customers with the best products the market has to offer from industrial engines to power generation and power equipment, engineering expertise, design, integration, test services, parts, service, warranty, training, and much more.

AIE’s team of experienced engineers realize that integrating engines into all types of equipment is critical for client success and closely work with clients to ensure they get exactly what they need. The company’s engineers can provide three-dimensional (3D) models for entire assemblies, duty cycle analysis, controls integration, stress analysis, along with design and testing.

The company’s team includes an engineering staff of eight, covering mechanical, electrical, control, and manufacturing engineering with decades of combined experience.

AIE’s engineers and production technicians at each of its three locations are responsible for performing alterations to all engines. “Most of the engines leaving our doors have some kind of value-add work done to them,” says company President and CEO Zach Turner. “We are reconfiguring, adding parts and pieces or sometimes building a complete package for customers. So the assembly technicians are the ones doing all that work for the value-added process.”

AIE has a massive, multi-million-dollar parts inventory, and its outstanding service staff is equipped with up-to-date diagnostic equipment to repair and test any size of engine or generator. This helps customers lose as little time as possible when equipment is down. “Our service department is there to really support our customers and our dealer network when they have technical issues or to administer warranty,” says company President Zach Turner.

Anderson Industrial Engines stands apart from the competition for its in-depth integration expertise and training that complement its superior-quality products and support.

AIE has in-house integration specialists whose expertise is relevant mainly to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) side of the business. “When our customers come to us, they are typically specialized in building a machine,” explains Turner. “They know how their machine works, and they know they need X amount of horsepower to make the grinder work. But actually integrating the engine in terms of mounting, component placement, temperatures, vibration, controls, all of the concerns about actually putting that engine into a piece of equipment and making it functional and long-lasting is really where we specialize.”

The company believes in sharing knowledge and offers valuable training for its dealers and OEM customers at the company headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska; Kansas City, Kansas; and Modesto California. It will do training on-site or remotely and recently offered courses in Grand Island and Hawaii, with an upcoming session in Salt Lake City.

“If we are selling you an engine for your piece of equipment and you have a group of your own technicians or engineers, we will offer training tailored to the engine or the engine line you are buying for your people as an equipment manufacturer as well,” says Turner.

Among the full-day classes offered is the Kubota training program, which gives new dealers valuable information, and the irrigation instruction program for dealers across the Midwest. AIE also offers Honda master technician certification.

Anderson Industrial Engines began as a division of another company and was incorporated in 1974. It has been solely owned by Doug Turner since the mid-eighties. Turner transformed the family-owned business into an industrial engine leader, growing the firm to a staff of seventy-three today including three part-timers.

This March, AIE took another step forward by purchasing leading industrial engine distributor H.G. Makelim Co.’s Kubota and JCB business and hiring most of Makelim’s staff. The acquisition of the ninety-seven-year-old business added seven states to AIE’s existing territory, further propelling the company’s expansion.

“We’ve got a physical presence all the way out to the West Coast now,” comments Turner. “We have parts and technical people manning the phones across three different time zones now, so we’ve got some coverage a few hours earlier and a few hours later for customer service calls than we had before.”

AIE also expanded another warehouse to keep up with customer demand and ensure ample supplies of parts and engine stock. And it increased its engineering team as part of the H.G. Makelim acquisition.

AIE’s industry reputation is second to none and its forty-five years in the industry has earned the company accolades from established and new customers. It listens to and addresses customer needs, working with them through the initial design stages, providing parts, service and information, and post-sale warranty administration as well as complete standard packages to OEM customers that help reduce time-to-market for these businesses.

“Our P-Series power units are self-contained packages that are highly customizable,” says Turner. “They’ve all been thoroughly vetted and tested. You can take a complete running engine ready to just attach your hydraulics and drop it into an application at short notice, vastly reducing development timelines for Tier 4 Final Diesel and Large Spark Ignited power equipment.”

Clients get much more than just a product in a box. With a diverse range of products, services, and in-house engineering resources, AIE can handle not only application engineering, but also design engineering, customization, and highly-specialized value-added work for its customers. Going to great lengths to specialize each engine for exact client needs for every application continues to earn the company business to this very day.

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