Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems on Wednesday, Jan. 26, celebrated the grand opening of its new actuator manufacturing facility based in Acuña, Mexico. The new facility marks the opening of the third manufacturing plant, expanding its Acuña operations. The Acuña III site, located near the Bendix Acuña I and Acuña II plants, manufactures actuator products, including spring brakes and service chambers. The 67,000-square-foot former brownfield was leased by Bendix in May 2010 and has been refurbished and upgraded.
“We’re very pleased to announce that the state-of-the-art Acuña III facility began production in December and has added 112 jobs to the local Acuña economy,” says John Cairo, Mexico country manager for Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems. “Expanding our existing Acuña operations through the latest manufacturing site addition has enabled Bendix to further leverage corporate shared services, while maintaining lean and cost-effective manufacturing processes to allow us to remain competitive in the markets we serve.”
Bendix says the Acuña III facility is expected to produce at least one million actuators per year for Bendix Spicer Foundation Brake, the joint venture of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems and Dana Commercial Vehicle Products. Bendix designs and manufactures a range of service chambers, piggybacks and combination tamper-proof spring brakes. Bendix says its actuators are available for all commercial vehicle makes, models and applications.
Attending the grand opening celebration was Klaus Deller, member of the executive board of Knorr-Bremse; Joe McAleese, president and chief executive officer of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems; Walt Frankiewicz, president of Bendix Spicer Foundation Brake; Scott Burkhart, vice president and general manager of the controls group at Bendix; Steve Mance, vice president and general manager of the charging group at Bendix; Eddie Wilkinson, vice president of quality and product safety at Bendix; Jorge Torres, governor of Coahuila, Mexico; Jesus Maria Ramon Valdes, a member of the Mexican Senate; Alberto Aguirre Villarreal, mayor of Acuña; and Roberto Fernandez, mayor of Del Rio, Texas. Those attending the grand opening received a tour of the new facility.
The company also announced that its Acuña I manufacturing facility achieved zero recordable accidents in 2010 despite a 13 percent increase in work hours from 2009.
