Hoffman Estates, Illinois—Bystronic announced the assembly of the first laser cutting machine at its new facility in Hoffman Estates. The company says it is providing locally assembled machinery to reduce overall lead time, installation time, and import costs.
The BySmart Fiber 3015 laser cutting machine, now with 8kW and 10kW Fiber laser power, is the first machine to be locally produced in the three major market regions of the world: North America, Europe, and Asia.
The BySmart Fiber will be shipped virtually fully assembled to most locations within North America. This process will reduce the installation time at the customer’s location by as much as 65 percent, according to Bystronic. Also, the machines will be 100 percent inspected and tested in the U.S. plant before shipment. Customer delivery lead times will also be reduced significantly, according to the company.
The current plan is that from this fall 2020, the next generation BySmart Fiber 4020 will also be assembled at the U.S. facility.
The assembly area is laid out as a ‘lean flow’ line. Using this concept, the base machine frame starts at one end of the line, is assembled in stages, and the finished machine exits at the end of the line, much in the way cars are assembled. Components and sub-assemblies are brought to the production line in a “just in time” fashion to complete the machine.
Bystronic will locally source machine components and sub-assemblies as economically practical. It has already identified suppliers for the mainframe, housing, dust tray, laser source and other components, and orders have already been placed with these vendors. Many of these vendors are current Bystronic customers and will be using Bystronic machinery to produce the parts.
The newly built Hoffman Estates facility will include a Customer Experience Center and the headquarters for the Americas market region. It will serve as the hub for Bystronic U.S. business operations including sales, service, training, spare parts, and the refurbishing of used machinery.
Currently, Bystronic employs approximately 160 employees in the U.S., with a notable increase planned within this year and beyond as more products are added for U.S. assembly. The total area of the new building is 164,894 sq. ft. The total area for machine assembly and parts warehousing is 103,393 sq. ft, the Experience Center is 30,721 sq. ft, and the total office area is 30,780 sq. ft.
With its new Experience Center near Chicago, Bystronic is now demonstrating advanced sheet metal processing to customers in the U.S. Bystronic will be displaying its entire range of sheet metal processing solutions: the latest technologies for laser cutting, integrated automation and storage solutions, flexible bending systems, tube and profile processing solutions, a software landscape that covers the entire sheet metal processing chain, smart services, and offering customized live demonstrations for customers.
The total investment for this project represents approximately 29 million Swiss Francs ($30 million) and a commitment of the Swiss and globally active Bystronic Group to the North American market.
A grand opening for the new Experience Center and headquarters for the Americas in Hoffman Estates, IL USA is scheduled for September 16 & 17, 2020.
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