German Supplier Finally Gets NA Tech Center

It Took Nearly a Decade, But German supplier Kolbenschmidt Pierburg AG finally has a key missing piece to fill its global facilities puzzle: a North American technical center.

Last month, the producer of pistons, pumps and fuel-delivery and emissions-management components dedicated its 60,000-sq.-ft. (5,574-sq.-m) engineering, design, prototype and validation center in Auburn Hills, MI, to target the needs of North American OEMs.

Initially housing some 70 technical, sales and administrative staffers, Kolbenschmidt Pierburg's tech center is expected to employ more than 150 people within five years.

The center will serve as regional headquarters for five of the company's six business units: air management, pumps, pistons, bearings and engine blocks.

Kolbenschmidt Pierburg is investing $11 million in the facility, which consolidates engineers and sales staff from Southfield, MI; Ottawa Lake, MI; and Fort Wayne, IN.

While some engineers transferred from Fort Wayne to Auburn Hills, about a dozen remained in Indiana to run an engine test lab, which opened in 2003.

That facility, equipped with several new engine dynamometers, will stay put, as moving the equipment to the new Michigan tech center is cost prohibitive, says Peter Hradowy, vice president-engineering and program management.

Hradowy says he hopes growth in new business supports the case for a new engine testing facility here in the future, in addition to the Fort Wayne lab.

The supplier has been discussing a unified North American tech center in metro Detroit for several years and at one point had an option for land elsewhere in Auburn Hills. But that project fell through as the company restructured and realigned priorities.

Pierburg Looks to U.S. for Incremental Growth
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