Bosch consolidates food packaging operations.

BRIDGMAN, MI - For Robert Bosch Corp., 1995 began a new era for its Packaging Machinery Division.

That year, the purchase of TL Systems, Minneapolis, prompted a reorganization along product lines, food and pharmaceutical, with pharmaceutical packaging centered in Minneapolis at what has

In 1997, the food side of the business was consolidated here in this western Michigan city, about 90 miles east of Chicago, under a new management team headed by Peter Loveland, president of the division.

As part of the consolidation, the operations, sales, spare parts and technical service departments, which had been headquartered in New Jersey for many years, moved in with the division's/vertical form-fill-seal (VFFS) machine manufacturing facility here.

Since field service personnel remained in place where they had always been, "the change was seamless to customers," says Mark Wortman, marketing manager.

The Bridgman campus also is home to other U.S. operations of Germany's Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, a $28 billion company best known for automotive parts and equipment.

Although a much smaller part of Bosch's business, packaging machinery accounts for $350-$400 million of the company's revenues. It has worldwide presence with manufacturing operations in Germany, Holland, India, Brazil, Japan and the United States, as well as 100 representatives worldwide.

Except for the VFFS machines, which have been built in Bridgman since 1988, Bosch's food packaging equipment is imported, mainly from Germany. This includes aseptic thermoform-fill-seal machines for liquid products, Hesser's Packaging Machines for dry foods such as coffee, flour and sugar, and high-speed twist wrappers and flow wrappers for confectionery products.

The division also markets Bosch's complete line of confectionery processing equipment and serves as a liaison between U.S. customers and the company's confectionery product development lab in Germany.

On the production floor, machines are assembled simultaneously using a work cell concept. Primary manufacturing of machine components is outsourced to reduce inventory and minimize turnaround of parts.

One corner of the building houses an automated storage system that holds spare parts inventory encompassing Bosch's full line of equipment and enabling personnel to ship overnight from stock and support U.S. customers.

In another area, a test bay with space for two VFFS machines is equipped with two different scales and a product handling system that dumps totes of product into a bucket elevator, that in turn, feeds a scale or other dosing system.

Being part of a larger Bosch complex allows the Packaging Machinery Division to participate in an on-site apprentice program that draws students from four regional high schools.

The two-year program provides training in hydraulics, pneumatics, robotics and flexible assembly, and is a significant source of skilled workers in an area where the unemployment rate stands at less than four percent.

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