Japanese automotive and industrial parts supplier Oji Intertech Inc. is investing $4.5 million in an expansion that will double the size of its manufacturing plant in North Manchester, Ind.
The 80,000-square-foot facility will be expanded to 160,000 square feet to support its growing customer base in the United States, including Tier 1 auto suppliers. The company also plans to create up to 33 new jobs, mostly for positions in production molding, by 2021. The expanded facility is scheduled to be fully operational by 2022.
As part of the facility expansion, Oji Intertech plans to upgrade its machinery and equipment, specifically its automated compression molding equipment, to open up additional capacity for its automotive customers.
“It will include an extensive re-layout of the facility,” Rick Sereno, president of Oji Intertech, said in a July 13 phone interview.
“We have two different value streams that this facility provides products to for customers: One is an automotive value stream; the other is an industrial coatings value stream,” he added. “The reorganization of the plant will help with the flow of materials, making those two value streams much more efficient for us.”
The company plans to add two additional molding lines by 2020, boosting its capacity to a total of five molding lines, plus two extruders and one corrugator, Sereno said.
“We were really out of capacity. All of our lines at this time are full five days a week,” Sereno said. “We saw that the economy was expanding, and customers were continuing to request additional products from Oji, so this expansion is essentially allowing for future growth out of this particular facility.”
Sereno said the company is currently reaching about $28 million in sales, with plans to grow with this expansion to $38 million by 2022.
The company is receiving up to $175,000 in conditional tax credits and $100,000 in training grants from the Indiana Economic Development Corp., contingent on job creation.
Oji Intertech, a subsidiary of parent company Oji Interpack Co. Ltd. in Tokyo, specializes in compression molding, die cutting, assembly and extrusion coating. The company manufactures interior automotive components for Tier 1 suppliers as well as industrial packaging for the steel, paper and consumer packaging industries.
For automotive, specifically, the company's main product line is a compression molded plastic and foam part used in HVAC ducting systems, Sereno said.
Oji Intertech has additional warehouse space in North Manchester as well as a sales office in Auburn Hills, Mich.
