Bendix Establishes Value Academy in Acuña

Manufacturing company Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC has chosen its Acuña, Coahuila, operations complex as the new location for its latest Value Stream Academy (VSA), an initiative focused on exploring waste elimination and value optimization strategies.

This is the first time this approach has been implemented in North America by Bendix's parent company, Germany's Knorr-Bremse. The other two sites are located in Liberec, Czech Republic (KB CVS), and Berlin, Germany (KB Rail).

The inaugural class brought together a team of 15 U.S. and Mexican engineers with an eye toward expanding to Bendix's other North American sites located in Avon, Ohio; Huntington, Indiana; and Bowling Green, Kentucky.

“Our global vision for the future is to secure Knorr-Bremse's long-term position as a business and technology leader through operational excellence,” Piotr Sroka, Bendix president, chief executive officer and chief operating officer, said at the presentation.

“To achieve this, we are fully focused on becoming faster, leaner and more effective through the comprehensive operational transformation that is taking place at Bendix,” Sroka added.

For his part, Fabio Nakai, director of Operational Excellence at Bendix, said that since 2012, VSA training “has played an important role at Knorr Production System (KPS), which provides light manufacturing instruction to Knorr-Bremse employees in both the trucking and rail industries.”

“With a diverse training catalog that starts with the basics and goes all the way to expert levels of problem solving, logistics and interpersonal skills, our VSAs have an extremely positive impact on our teams and processes, which strengthens our relationships in the industry and supports transportation safety everywhere in the world,” added Nakai.

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, a subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse Group, develops active safety technologies, energy management solutions and air brake control and charging systems and components under the Bendix brand for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, tractors, trailers, buses and other commercial vehicles throughout North America.

An industry pioneer with nearly 4,000 employees, Bendix offers solutions to optimize vehicle safety, performance and overall operating cost. The company operates four manufacturing plants in Acuña, Coahuila, and a research and development (R&D) center in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon.

With the VSA at Plant 2 of its expanding Acuña complex, Bendix will train employees from all of Knorr-Bremse's North American operations, including Tier 1 suppliers to the rail industry: Knorr Brake Company, KB Signaling, KB Rail - Mexico, and New York Air Brake LLC.