Dive Brief:
- Yaskawa America is investing $180 million to expand its manufacturing facility in Franklin, Wisconsin, the robotics and automation component maker announced Friday.
- The new campus will span 800,000 square feet and include a training and lab building, a packaging facility and robotics and semiconductor production operations. Yaskawa’s products serve customers across a variety of industries, including packaging, food and beverage, semiconductors and rubber and plastics.
- The project will create more than 700 jobs, according to the press release. The company also plans to relocate its headquarters, training facilities and operations to the campus from its Buffalo Grove and Waukegan, Illinois, facilities over the next eight to 10 years.
Dive Insight:
The Wisconsin and Illinois facilities manufacture AC drives, servo motors and controllers under Yaskawa America’s drives and motions division, according to Japan-based parent company Yaskawa Electric Corp.’s website.
The Buffalo Grove site also has a repair facility and warehousing, which the company plans to move to the Franklin site in the 2030 timeframe, Dennis Fitzgerald, VP of customer interaction center, said in an email.
Yaskawa America plans to work with the 200 workers at its Illinois site to bring them to the new headquarters, Fitzgerald said, including the option to relocate or to commute from their current locations.
“There will be some who retire in the 6-10 year window as well as some who will not move with us,” Fitzgerald said.
One of the largest segments for Yaskawa America and Yaskawa Electric is semiconductor manufacturing, Fitzgerald added. The company sells specialty equipment to the semiconductor market, “which requires a clean room to assemble or repair the products,” he said.
Yaskawa America has operated in North America for 58 years, according to the press release. The subsidiary has operated in Wisconsin since 2000, Fitzgerald said. Company-wide, Yaskawa America has 2,300 associates in the Americas.
The company plans to either sell or lease the Waukegan building “as the economics dictated,” Fitzgerald said.
In 2009, Yaskawa leased a facility in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, that manufactured “value added assemblies and cabinets for specific customer requirements,” Fitzgerald said. The facility spanned 140,000 square feet but the company was running out of manufacturing space at the site.
The lease ended in May and Yaskawa purchased a former Transpak logistics site in which to expand. The land around the facilities would be used for other “future ideas,” Fitzgerald added.
Additionally, the Franklin expansion will enable Yaskawa to begin manufacturing robot arms and controllers that will be shipped directly to customers or to its Miamisburg, Ohio, facility to be integrated into solutions for customers, Fitzgerald said. The Miamisburg site is operated under Yaskawa America’s Motoman Robotics subsidiary, according to the website.
“This Franklin facility will significantly improve our robot supply chain, reducing lead times,” Fitzgeral added.
Construction on the new Franklin headquarters is set to begin this year and be complete by mid-2027, Fitzgerald said.
“Our plan is to continue to work with our associates, which is an essential asset of our company,” Fitzgerald said.
Yaskawa America has another manufacturing facility in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The factory site also houses research and development under its Solectria Renewables subsidiary, which makes solar inverters.
Other U.S.-based robotic and automation subsidiaries are expanding their manufacturing footprint in Wisconsin. Swedish-based ABB opened a $100 million plant and innovation lab for electric drives in New Berlin last year.
