MONTERREY, Mexico—Luminar has opened a new highly automated, high-volume assembly plant here. The factory is dedicated to producing the company’s Iris automotive lidar sensors.

CARROLLTON, TX—Siemens has opened a new assembly plant here to produce chargers for electric vehicles. The company’s second EV charger manufacturing hub in the U.S., the factory will help the company meet its goal of producing 1 million EV chargers for the U.S. market. 

To improve its manufacturing and supply chain operations data, Johnson Controls implemented LeanDNA, a cloud-based platform that connects the company’s numerous ERP systems. Like many companies with distributed locations and processes, Johnson Controls data was scattered and difficult to find and understand. LeanDNA provides the company with a comprehensive, organized view of cross-site analytics. 

WICHITA, KS—Integra Technologies, the largest U.S. outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) company, plans to invest $1.8 billion to build a large-scale manufacturing facility here. 

WALTERBORO, SC—Pomega Energy Storage Technologies, a subsidiary of Kontrolmatik Technologies, will build its first U.S. assembly plant here. The $279 million project is expected to create 575 jobs.

When dispensing form-in-place gaskets—for example, on the die-cast housing of an automotive control unit—it’s important to apply the material precisely along the contour of the part. On the housing, the contour runs partly in a straight groove, partly around corners and screw locations and partly along various radiuses. In the area where the plug housing will be installed, the material often must be applied on a ramped surface. All this makes consistent, gap-free dispensing difficult.

The new DC803 Dispensing Cell from Scheugenpflug GmbH promises to make the process faster, easier and more reliable.

LEHI, UT—Texas Instruments Inc. will build its next 300-millimeter semiconductor wafer fabrication plant here. 

Initiated in 2004, the Assembly Plant of the Year award showcases world-class production facilities in America and the people, products, and processes that make them successful. 

INCHEON, South Korea—Researchers at Incheon National University have developed a cost-effective, eco-friendly technique for making high-efficiency chalcopyrite solar cells. 

Companies achieve manufacturing excellence when people have the tools they need to produce high-quality work. On the shop floor, this comes about through the marriage of workers and machinery and the refining of processes through constant care and iteration.