The plant's fastest growing line is a power rear window that's become a popular option for Ford Motor Co.'s biggest seller, the new F150 pickup truck.Watch video
Plant Manager Bruce Warren is proud of the comeback at the engineered glass facility, which reopened a plant that the Canadian parent company shut down in 2007.
"We have 50 openings right now," said Warren.
The plant's fastest growing line is a power rear window that's become a popular option for Ford Motor Co.'s biggest seller, the new F150 pickup truck. The "Pureview" window accounts for 130 of the new jobs in Holland.
Besides its streamlined design, the Pureview also uses a lighter window control module. The "Pureview" window recently won the 2014 Pace Award from Automotive News magazine, one of the top innovation awards in the industry, Warren said.
Magna also is finding success in producing the rear quarter window assemblies for the Mercedes Benz C-Class luxury car and a unique three-piece rear quarter window for the 50th anniversary edition of the Ford Mustang.
It's a far cry from 2007, when Canadian-based Magna shut down one of the former Donnelly Corp. glass plants in Holland Township after years of declining sales. While the auto industry was headed towards a decline, this plant got there early. By 2009, the workforce was down to 300.
By focusing on new products and production techniques, Warren said they were able to revive the company's sales in Holland.
Today, the two Magna glass plants in Holland are producing three times as many parts with two times the workforce of seven years ago, Warren said. Wages for the non-union workforce start at $11 an hour and step up to $17 an hour for every year of employment.
The F150 windows, which contain about 30 different components, are assembled by a combination of robots and workers. While adhesives are applied precisely by robots, the final assembly and fitting is done with human hands.
Although demand for auto parts is high with the resurgence of the auto industry, Warren credits the Holland operation's success to innovative designs like the F150 window and the innovative windows for the Mercedes Benz and Mustang.
"Everything was designed and patented here in Holland," said Warren. Those three new products now make up 25 percent of the plants' output.
The Holland plant also makes conventional sliding glass windows for other pickup trucks, including those made by Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Dodge Ram, Warren said. "We export windows to Canada and Mexico," he said.
Warren is excited about new products that are in the works inside his testing laboratories. Although he can't talk about them, he says he's optimistic about the future of the Holland plants.
"When you shut down a plant, you have no idea if you're ever going to open it up again," said Warren. "So it's an exciting time for us after 10 years of it going down for us."
Jim Harger covers business for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.