Press Release: Malloy Electric Relaunches Panel Shop
Malloy Electric Relaunches Panel Shop as the Most Automated UL508A Operation in the United States, Integrating Proprietary AI to Transform Industrial Control Panel Design and Production
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (February 24, 2026) – Malloy Electric, an independent industrial distributor and service provider founded in 1945, today announced the formal relaunch of its UL508A and UL698A certified panel shop as what the company calls the most automated industrial control panel operation in the United States. The relaunch pairs advanced CNC fabrication and automated wire processing with a proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) system trained on more than 500,000 engineering documents, designs, and decades of field experience accumulated across Malloy's eight-decade history.
The announcement signals more than a facility upgrade. It represents a fundamental shift in how Malloy approaches the design, engineering, and production of custom industrial control panels for customers across the upper Midwest and beyond.
"This is not a renovation. This is a reinvention," said Chris Houwman, CEO of Malloy Electric. "We took everything we've learned in 80 years of solving problems for industrial customers, and we asked a simple question: what if all of that knowledge could inform every single panel we build going forward? The answer is what you see today. Nobody builds panels like we do, because nobody can."
The Motivation
At the core of Malloy's relaunch is a proprietary AI instance trained on more than 500,000 internal engineering documents, technical drawings, application histories, and design records spanning the company's entire operational history. Unlike generic AI tools built on publicly available data, Malloy's system draws exclusively on real solutions delivered to real customers in real industrial environments, from ethanol plants and wastewater facilities to wind energy operations and heavy manufacturing.
The AI system serves as institutional memory, accelerating engineering decisions, surfacing relevant precedents during the design phase, and helping Malloy's engineers identify proven approaches to complex control challenges before any components are specified. The result is faster project turnaround, fewer change orders, and panels that reflect accumulated expertise rather than starting from scratch on every build.
"When a customer brings us a problem, our engineers are no longer limited to what they personally remember or what they can find in a file cabinet," said Colin Bretsch, Vice President at Malloy Electric. "They have instant access to every solution we've engineered. That changes the speed and quality of what we can deliver and, frankly, the entire conversation with the customer."
From Intelligence to Execution: A Seamless Digital Workflow
The connection between Malloy's AI-informed engineering and its automated production floor is not metaphorical. Every panel design is created in EPLAN's 3D engineering environment, producing a complete digital model of the control cabinet before fabrication begins. That 3D model then feeds directly into production equipment, creating an unbroken chain from engineering intent to the finished panel.
On the shop floor, a Steinhauer ModCenter receives the EPLAN design data and executes CNC enclosure preparation, including automated drilling, tapping, milling, and deburring, without requiring manual layout or interpretation. A Komax automated wire processing system uses the same engineering data to deliver precision-cut, labeled, and tracked wiring for every connection in the build. The result is a production process in which the intelligence captured in the design phase carries through to the last terminated wire without degradation or human reinterpretation.
"Most panel shops still hand off a drawing to a technician and hope for the best," said Bretsch. "Our engineers design in 3D, and that design talks directly to the machines that build it. The precision you see in the engineering is the precision you get in the panel. There is no gap."
The company maintains UL508A certification for industrial control panels and UL698A certification for panels intended for hazardous locations, including explosion-proof and intrinsically safe designs. Every panel undergoes point-to-point continuity checks, load testing, and thermal performance validation before shipping.
Regional Foundation, National Ambition
The panel shop relaunch coincides with a period of significant expansion for Malloy Electric, which recently broke ground on a 200,000-square-foot motor facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and has invested in major capital upgrades across its network of locations in South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana, and Wyoming. The company employs more than 300 people across eight service centers.
Malloy's panel operations are headquartered in Sioux Falls, with service teams positioned throughout the Midwest to support field commissioning, on-site assessment, and ongoing technical support.
About Malloy Electric
Founded in 1945, Malloy Electric is an applications-driven, independent distributor and service provider. Malloy is well known in the electric motor repair business, accommodating sizes up to 20,000 HP across numerous locations in South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana, and Wyoming. Malloy’s foundation is in three distinct disciplines: industrial controls, electric motors, and mechanical power transmission, where the focus is “We service what we sell.” Malloy Electric is headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. For more information, visit www.malloyelectric.com
For more information, please contact:
Carl Lee Tolbert, PhD, CMRP (605) 951-8369
Panel Shop
Parts waiting for modification.
One of the human faces behind our Designs.
