Inventus Power has four manufacturing facilities located in Woodridge, Illinois, USA, Tijuana, Mexico, Qingxi, China; and Manaus, Brazil. This global manufacturing footprint allows us to strategically balance such factors as product mix, operating costs, and speed of delivery.
As far apart as these four locations may be geographically, they are closely aligned philosophically. Through such factors as strategic hiring of the most skilled people sharing common core values; comprehensive training programs; implementation of uniform manufacturing, quality & safety systems; and working at the senior management levels to establish a highly desirable workplace culture, our employees all see themselves as being part of a global family, each individually empowered to serve the customer.
That said, each facility also maintains its own local and cultural distinctions as they pursue their collective drive for product and service excellence. In this series, we will take a look at each of our four facilities in turn, highlighting both the shared values that connect us, and the distinctive outlooks that make us unique.
In this segment, we'll focus on our facility in Tijuana, Mexico.
Expanding into Mexico
Driven by the desire to provide greater proximity and faster delivery to U.S. customers as compared to overseas operations, Inventus Power first established a manufacturing presence in Mexico in 2010.
“U.S. customers loved the idea,” said Fernando Garcia, Operations Director of the Inventus Power Tijuana facility. “When you are getting product from overseas, your order will be on the water for weeks, but now we’re just a few days away from customers anywhere in the U.S.”
With a high-quality offering and significantly faster lead times, the demand for products from the facility escalated quickly.
“In just a few years, we came to a point where we were bursting at the seams at the original site,” said Fernando.
In 2018, Fernando and his team cut the ribbon on a new 100,000 sq. ft. facility in Tijuana, strategically upsized for growth and dedicated to state-of-the-art technology.
“From day one, the Tijuana (TJ) plant philosophy was to make smart investments in its resources and capabilities to support a growing and more diverse product portfolio while also increasing operational efficiency and maximizing throughput,” said Fernando. "Over the last few years, we have made significant investments in automation at our TJ facility in order to support larger, more complex battery pack manufacturing at scale."
Fernando notes that the proximity to the United States, in addition to allowing for faster shipping, also makes it more convenient for U.S. customers to visit and audit the Tijuana plant. This has worked very well for the Inventus Power operation.
“Customer visits have been a huge selling point for our team,” he said. “Visitors—current customers and potential customers alike—are very impressed with the manufacturing processes that we have put in place to build their products as well as our quality control systems that support them. The facility is also impressive in size and cleanliness. It is well maintained by our staff and that leaves a good impression on visitors.”
Batteries for medical devices, low speed electric vehicles and more
The Tijuana facility produces a wide range of products for our customers, including batteries for medical devices such as infusion pumps, ventilators, imaging systems; industrial and safety equipment for work force and first responders; and low speed electric vehicles such as golf carts, scissor lifts, floor scrubbers, and more.
According to Fernando, of all the products they make, there is one that holds a particularly special place in the hearts of the Tijuana team: the U1LiFe Series, designed for mobile cart applications. “We’ve been building U1LiFe batteries in Tijuana for ten years, and when we transferred to our new facility, a U1LiFe battery was the first product to roll off the manufacturing line at the new site. The battery is now fondly referred to by our TJ team as 'Lupila Volt' and the team celebrates Lupila’s birthday each year."
The plant is ISO-9001 certified and ISO-13485 certified for medical devices, helping to maintain the facility’s quality record across all product lines. The site has built a strong reputation for manufacturing high reliability products using very robust validation protocols that yield consistent output.
Fernando notes that the facility also prides itself on being a “good corporate citizen,” and is a Secure Business Partner with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) program, with stringent internal supply chain security procedures in place.
Strong track record, stronger future
In their fifth anniversary year, with sustained year-over-year growth since the facility’s opening, an ongoing introduction of new products such as larger format battery packs, and the frequent addition of new manufacturing capabilities such as automated resistance welding, wire bonding, and laser cleaning, Fernando believes the best years of the facility are still ahead.
“Customers are looking for long-term business partners and we have shown them that Inventus Power has deep roots in the industry and are continuing to make investments to grow and expand our capabilities to support new and existing customers,” continues Fernando. “We have achieved significant growth in Tijuana, but still have the capacity to do more. We built our facility with an eye toward growth, and a mentality of ‘if we build it, they will come.’ And the customers are coming to TJ, and, hopefully, will continue to do so well into the future.”
Fernando Garcia
Operations Director
Tijuana, Mexico
