Phillips unveils new manufacturing facilities in Mexico to meet N.A. product demand

Phillips unveils new manufacturing facilities in Mexico to meet N.A. product demand

The manufacturer plans to relocate its manufacturing in China to Mexico.

Phillips celebrated its 95th anniversary as well as 15 years in Mexico last week with the grand opening of its two production facilities in Arteaga, Mexico, totaling 500,000 square feet. The ceremony, which included a ribbon cutting and plant tour, was held in front of 1,300 Phillips employees, Phillips customers, Governor Miguel Angel Riquelme and Arteaga Mayor Ramiro Duran Garcia.

The newest building, completed in 2022 and totaling 380,000 square feet, will now house all Phillips Industries manufacturing operations, including those already in Mexico, and all production lines relocated from their former location in Santa Fe Springs, CA. The original Arteaga building, with 120,000 square feet of floor space, has been reconfigured to manufacture, test, and ship electronic telematics products for the Phillips Connect business.

Phillips first came to Mexico to produce wiring harnesses in 2007 and moved to a larger location in Arteaga in 2015 to meet growing product demand from OEM customers. The new campus will produce products for the company’s customers in North America. Ultimately, the company plans to relocate its manufacturing from China to Mexico, says Phillips Industries and Phillips Connect president and chief executive officer Rob Phillips.

“Our experience in Mexico has proven to me that it’s the absolute best place to manufacture Phillips and Phillips Connect products,” Rob says. “The facility is the cleanest, most well-organized, and the best managed we have anywhere in the world. Most importantly, the people are outstanding. Our current workforce and those ready to come to work for us can be relied upon to carry our success forward. We depend on that as we continue to expand here in Mexico.”

Phillips-Mexico-Factory-1-1400
The new Phillips Industries facility develops products for both OEM and aftermarket industries.
Phillips-Bob-Phillps-Speech-1400
Bob Phillips thanks Governor Miguel Angel Riquelme (seated fourth from the left) and Arteaga Mayor Ramiro Duran Garcia (seated third from the right) for their support.

Bob Phillips, the company’s chairman of the board, says Phillips products can be found on “virtually every Class 7 and 8 truck in North America and over 80% of every trailer.”

“We have over 3,500 dealers, and parts distributors from Central America to Alaska and Canada who are stocking parts and keeping the heavy-duty trucks on the road,” Bob says. “People often ask: ‘Have you ever thought the company would get this large?’ And I say, ‘You have to be kidding. How could I have known?’”

By the end of 2023, Phillips expects to employ 2,100 people in Arteaga.

Phillips headquarters will remain in California and serve as the base for customer service, accounting, research development, and other support functions for North America, Europe, Phillips Connect, and Phillips Innovations.

Phillips-Building-Mexico-1400
The newest Phillips facility is 380,000 square feet. Combined with the space of the former Phillips Industries facility which now houses Phillips Connect, the facilities are 500,000 square feet.
Phillips-Mexico-Plaque-1400
Bob Phillips (left, shaking hands) and Governor Miguel Angel Riquelme reveal a dedication plaque outside the new Phillips Industries manufacturing facility.

New Phillips Industries facility boosts capacity

With the move to the larger facility, Phillips upgraded several pieces of equipment, including three new high-speed wire and cable extruders, 36 new injection molding machines, and various other applicators to prepare the factory for increased production capacity. This building includes 28 production lines–some in support of the company’s OEM trucks business and some in support of its aftermarket business. According to Phillips Production Manager Gilberto Mena, the facility currently has the capacity to produce 11,000 pieces per week for its OEM business and 28,000 pieces per week for its aftermarket business.

“However, by the end of Q2, max capacity will be 20,000 per week for trucks [OEM] and 40,000 per week for aftermarket,” he says.

Mena says Phillips invested more than $1 million in the last two years in new equipment for the trucks and aftermarket businesses.

In addition, Phillips invested an additional $2 million in the last two years into its trailer production lines, of which there are 16. These lines can produce as many as 38,000 pieces per day, according to Operations Manager Samuel Robledo.

This facility also has two running production lines for its lights business, with the capacity to expand to four if demand requires. The machinery and equipment are already available for expansion in the plant. The two running lines can produce up to 5,500 pieces for penny lights and up to 6,800 pieces for stop/tail/turn & mid-turn lights per week.

There is also a mold tool shop located in the building with three CNC machines capable of producing over 300 different molds exclusive to Phillips Industries, according to Materials Manager Ana Ibarra.

In late Q2, Phillips plans to upgrade and expand its extrusion capabilities via a $3.5 million investment in this facility. The company currently has extruders at its California plant, but Manufacturing Manager Eduardo Fuentes says the investment will increase yearly capacity from 140 million feet of cable to 211 million feet.

Phillips also built in an additional 50,000 square feet of empty space for possible future production line expansion.

Phillips-Connect-Presentation-1400
Rob Phillips holds up one of the products that will be manufactured at the new Phillips Connect facility–a Smart7 gateway designed to track a variety of sensors in one hub.

Phillips Connect ‘smart’ products to benefit

Phillips Connect manufacturing currently happens in a Chinese facility, but Rob says he hopes that will all move to Mexico soon. The move is mainly due to supply-chain challenges in China, which include issues with component availability, high freight costs, long lead times, tariffs, high inventory carrying costs, a lack of manufacturing control and continuing COVID impacts on the Chinese workforce.

“Every product that we’ve delivered, close to 190,000 smart trailer solutions, close to a million sensors, they’ve all come out of China. Most of those have been air-freighted because we’re selling faster than we anticipated. We can’t keep up,” Rob says. “So, we’ve been investing to set up all of our manufacturing in Mexico, to really buy into Mexico. We’ve got so many good things working in our favor. Instead of manufacturing in China, shipping on a boat or more frequently shipping on airplanes and having all the other stuff to deal with, we’re going to have full control over all of our manufacturing.”

Rob says the shift to Mexico is also due to ongoing workforce challenges in the U.S.

“At Phillips, we’ve flexed our manufacturing labor for years. We have a 24-hour lead time. We take the order today, we build it tomorrow, we ship it tomorrow night. That’s what we’ve done for years, but we’ve had challenges the last three years because we can’t get employees like we used to. We would order 30 temporary employees on a daily basis,” he says. “That’s how we were able to flex and meet the order demand. But now if we lose anybody in California, we can’t get anybody back.”

Today, the Phillips Connect facility in Mexico is only partially operational, with Rob saying it is about 30-40% of the way to full capacity. He believes the company will have two full production lines complete by the end of Q2.

At full capacity, the company will manufacture a range of telematics and smart trailer products, including SolarNet, StealthNet, Smart7 and Smart Break-Away boxes. These products will connect to the company’s Connect1 dashboard for fleet reporting, notifications, maintenance and geofencing.

Rob says he believes a distinct advantage of Phillips Connect products is that the installation process is very fast compared to the company’s competitors. The StealthNet product, for example, has an advertised installation time of 60 minutes per trailer.

“One of our competitors has a product that they just launched and they were advertising it takes eight hours to install. No one’s going to do it. No one’s got eight hours to do it. If you’ve got four trailers, maybe. But the fleets we’re talking to have 4,000 to 40,000 trailers. It’s never going to happen,” Rob says. “For us, we had to develop a product that’s easy to install at the OEM.”

Phillips-Connect-Machinary-1400
Phillips customers tour the assembly lines in the new Phillips Connect facility.

The new Phillips Connect facility includes an ESD SAFE room–a room used for controlling electrostatic discharge–featuring 21,000 square feet of a controlled ambient environment which includes conductive flooring and restricted access due to the electronic assembly that will take place. Production capabilities of the new facility include in-circuit device programming, automatic fully automated glue dispensing, and assembly using S-Y and 6-axis robots, automated torque drivers, leak detection systems, functional testing, and customer acceptance testing.

All test stations are connected to a custom-made SCADA system, used for controlling, monitoring and analyzing industrial devices and processes, that retains information for every unit to help ensure control and traceability on a sub-assembly level. Eventually, this facility will also include a battery charging station that will charge the two-, four- and six-cell batteries that are used in all Phillips Connect products.

Rob says Phillips Connect has about 130 employees, up from 16 just a couple of years ago. The company is expecting to have 15 line operators “in the very near term” and has five more skilled positions to fill.

Phillips-Dancers-1400
Traditional Mexican dancers put on a show for the crowd of over 1,300 Phillips employees during the grand opening ceremony.
Phillips-Jesus-Martinez-TRESME-1400
Seven suppliers were thanked and awarded for their business with Phillips in Mexico. Pictured, Jesus Martinez (center) accepts an award on behalf of Tresme (Troqueles y Estructuras Metálicas). Other suppliers awarded include: Aplicadores e Ingenieria Industrial de Saltillo; Viakon, Conductores Monterrey; Siac, Group; Del Bosque de Valle Consultores SC; Indupack; Tramitaciones Group Forwarding; and Davisa Desarrollo Inmobiliarios.
Phillips-Mexico-Factory-2-1400
By the end of 2023, Phillips expects to employ 2,100 people in Arteaga.
Phillips-Mariachi-Band-1400
Phillips customers and executives were treated to live mariachi music during dinner.
Phillips-Presentation-Panorama-1400
More than 1,300 Phillips employees were in attendance to witness the grand opening ceremony.

You May Also Like

Hendrickson launches HLC Series 1 air kits

Hendrickson offers versions for self-steerable and non-steerable applications, both of which it says drop-in to replace HAC series air kits.

HLC-Series-air-kits-Hendrickson

The Auxiliary Axle Systems division of Hendrickson Specialty Products introduced the new HLC Series 1 Air Kits. According to Hendrickson, the new HLC Series is designed to be a drop-in replacement for the previous generation HAC Series.

Users can choose between two two different configurations: HLC-SSI, for self-steerable applications, and HLC-NSI for non-steerable applications. Hendrickson says the HLC-SSI is equipped with an electric-actuated toggle switch and possesses the ‘lift on reverse’ feature, while HLC-NSI is designed with a manual push-pull operation and is suited for applications that do not need to lift when in reverse. The company tells us both kits were tested to perform in extreme environmental conditions.

PACCAR Parts presents dealer awards to Peterbilt dealers

One of the award recipients also passed a milestone achievement in 2023, by opening the 100th TRP store.

PACCAR-parts-awards-larson-group-ecommerce
Thermo King announces 2023 Dealers of the Year

The winners of Thermo King North American and Latin American Dealers of the Year topped a list of 261 locations to claim their honors.

2023-Thermo-King-DotY-North-America
Vanair acquires Grip Idle Management

Vanair says Grip Idle Management’s technology integrates with Vanair’s existing EPEQ Idle Management Systems.

Lincoln Electric launches Velion DC fast charger for electric vehicles

The charger operates at a wide range of temperatures.

Other Posts

Sustainability, decarbonization through fuel efficiency

Better fuel economy can lower costs, minimize environmental impact and improve sustainability — thoughtful engineering can help see those results.

Trucking-Sustainably-mar24-Volvo-fuel-efficiency-emissions-decarbonization
Direct labor vs. indirect labor in fleet shops

Keeping tabs on labor expenditures is important, but make sure you’re taking everything into account before assigning blame.

service-technician-generic-maintenance-downtime-repairs
SKF helps Maverick Transportation keep wheels attached

Having a wheel fly off while driving can be catastrophic, and SKF says TraX and Road Ready help catch issues early.

SKF-Road-Ready-TraX-wheel-telematics-Maverick-Transportation
FieldRoutes announces ServiceTitan Fleet Pro integration

The company says this integration helps customers to eliminate side jobs, prevent unsafe driving, maximize billable hours and more.

service-maintenance-data-generic-1400