Medical technology firm BD to invest $60 mn in US facility

It will upgrade its Nebraska facility into a plastic moulding manufacturing center by 2021

BS B2B Bureau Columbus, Nebraska (USA)

Last Updated : May 06 2017 | 1:53 PM IST

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), a global medical technology company, plans to invest $60 million to upgrade its facility at Columbus-East (Nebraska, USA) into a plastic moulding manufacturing center of excellence by 2021.

The investment will add 69,000 sq ft to the facility to transform it into the flagship plastic moulding manufacturing facility for BD, and it will become one of the largest and most sophisticated plastic moulding plants in the world. The new facility will centralise and insource a majority of BD’s North American plastic moulding production that is currently produced by third-party manufacturers. BD is one of the largest users of plastic moulded products in the world, with more than 700 billion units manufactured each year.

The transformation of the Columbus-East facility will occur over a four-year period, and the company plans to continue manufacturing its current pre-fillable glass syringe production lines while transforming the facility into a plastics moulding manufacturing center of excellence.

“Columbus is home to BD’s largest and longest-running manufacturing facility in the world, and we are excited to bring cutting-edge technology and production to the area. Columbus will be the centerpiece for our plastic moulding manufacturing strategy for North America, supporting multiple business units in the US and around the world,” said Steve Sichak, executive vice president and chief integrated supply chain officer of BD.

BD plans to invest $ 7 million to retain and retrain its associates for the different skill sets needed for plastic moulding manufacturing or to facilitate their transfer to its other manufacturing facility in Columbus or other sites across the BD network. BD is working with local and state officials to develop the necessary training programs and curriculum to be administered in educational institutions in the Columbus area.

In September, BD announced a $ 100 million investment in its Holdrege (Nebraska) facility to expand capacity for its insulin syringe manufacturing operations, bringing BD’s total commitment to Nebraska to $ 160 million in the past eight months alone. In addition to Columbus and Holdrege, BD also has operations in Broken Bow (Nebraska) and employs approximately 2,500 people across the state.