To support future growth and strengthen its product line-up for North American customers, DENSO has invested approximately $53.6 million and added 100 new jobs at its DENSO Manufacturing Michigan Inc. (DMMI) facility in Battle Creek, Mich.
According to DENSO, this investment allows the company to develop new manufacturing lines for advanced thermal systems, add additional labs for new product testing and validation, and expand logistics and packaging operations. The investment began in late 2014 and will continue throughout 2015.
“DENSO’s Battle Creek facility is the hub for all of our thermal production in North America,” said Shingo Kuwamura, president of DMMI and CEO of DENSO Thermal Systems North American Center. “This investment allows us to expand our ‘next generation’ manufacturing and testing capabilities, while also creating space to lead our training and leadership programs as we develop our employee’s ‘next generation’ job skills.”
DENSO purchased two buildings in the Fort Custer Industrial Park, increasing DMMI’s footprint to include more than 1.3 million square feet of space for manufacturing, warehousing, product testing and other support functions. One building will support with warehousing parts and packaging, as well as shipping and receiving for some customers. The other building will be dedicated to new product testing, engineering process changes and other product reliability testing for the company’s thermal plant locations in Battle Creek, Arkansas, Canada and Mexico.
The investment in DMMI is part of DENSO’s expansion plan first announced in January 2013, through which the company plans to invest nearly $1 billion in North America – more than $750 million in the United States – to strengthen and expand its product development and manufacturing capabilities across the region.
