HBPO, a supplier of modular front-end systems, has opened a new facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico, to support nearby Mercedes-Benz A-Class sedan assembly operations.
HBPO’s 50,200-square-foot facility currently has 70 employees and is operating on two 12-hour shifts Monday through Saturday. Located in a just-in-sequence supplier park near the Daimler plant, the HBPO facility will have more than 100 employees when full production is reached next year.
Nearly 100 Daimler, HBPO, Plastic Omnium and HBPO supplier executives recently took part in grand-opening ceremonies for the new plant. Participants included Jens Keller, HBPO CFO; Diana Mannino, president of HBPO North America; Carlos Galan, plant manager, HBPO Aguascalientes; Larry Reid, director of industrial operations for HBPO North America; Thomas Koehle, Daimler’s manager of supplier quality exterior parts in Mexico, and Abel Martinez, Plastic Omnium’s director of operations for Mexico.
“Our new plant has been designed with the very latest, state-of-the-art equipment and processes,” said Mannino. “We know that Daimler expects its suppliers to deliver nothing but the highest-quality service and products for the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, its newest entry in the luxury compact segment. That’s what HBPO plans to deliver from our new facility in Aguascalientes.”
The HBPO plant has the capacity to produce up to 145,000 complex front-end modules per year.
Galan, the Aguascalientes plant manager, noted that within three hours of notice, HBPO is able to deliver just-in-sequence front-end modules for vehicles coming down Daimler’s nearby assembly line. The process involves the management of more than 185 individual components for 400 or more A-Class front-end modules per day.
“We very much have appreciated the help and support provided by Daimler’s management in getting our newest plant in Mexico up and running in the most efficient and timely way possible,” Galan said.
Based in Lippstadt, Germany, HBPO has its North American operations headquarters in Troy, Michigan, and production facilities in Windsor, Canada, as well as in Aguascalientes, Puebla, San Jose Chiapa and Toluca, Mexico. Last year, the company’s plants globally produced more than 5.7 million front-end modules.
