MiMfg Magazine
INDUSTRY
22
March 2020
Member
Spotlight
Dennis Hoeg
Vice President and
North America Division President
Nexteer
Member since November 2018 • Employs 5,000 Michigan workers • Learn more at nexteer.com
Creating a cohesive culture can
be an annoyingly slow process
but, when you hit upon the right
one, the one that merges your
people and your vision, it can
open doors to incredible possibility
and represent the most exciting
time to be a manufacturer. It took
a long time for Nexteer to
discover their culture. Through
half a dozen name changes and
ownerships, they kept focusing on
improving the car driving experience
and eventually that hard work led
to One Nexteer Culture and a
decade of unprecedented growth.
“At the end of the day, we’re
car people — we have a lot of
passion for being a part of the
automotive industry,” said Dennis
Hoeg, vice president of Nexteer
and president of the company’s
North America division. “Your
story and your people comprise
so much of who you are in
manufacturing. You need to
understand that. Understand
who you are, see where you want
to go and don’t let anything keep
the team from getting there.”
Their team views success as a
choice you make. This is evident
as Nexteer chose to take on a multi-
year, global effort in launching
Digital Trace ™ Manufacturing, one
of the most advanced, holistic,
integrative approaches to design
and production.
Your story and your people
comprise so much of who you
are in manufacturing. You need
to understand that. Understand
who you are, see where you want
to go and don’t let anything keep
the team from getting there.
Nexteer’s Global Technical
Center and multiple manufacturing
facilities are situated on 400 acres
with more than 3.1 million square
feet of manufacturing, research
and development and testing space.
“We’re definitely unique because
everyday people don’t see our
products. However, our technology
touches the lives of millions of
people around the world on a daily
basis. It’s a huge part of what
allows the car driving experience
to be fun and exciting but what
we do — advanced steering and
driveline systems — gets hidden in
the car,” Hoeg explained. “Success
Three vehicles outfitted with Nexteer’s Steer-by-Wire (SbW) technology are ready for a
test drive at the Global Technical Center Test Track in Saginaw. SbW is the center link
in Nexteer’s advanced steering technology suite, replacing the mechanical steering
connection between the roadwheels and handwheel with algorithms, electronics and
actuators, and enabling new advanced safety and performance benefits.
for us comes from working with our
customers — the world’s leading
OEMs — and understanding what
they need and how technology
can make it possible.”
To small and mid-sized
manufacturers, Hoeg urges them
to do the things Nexteer has done
to see such rapid growth in the
last 10 years.
“Focus on your people, focus on
achieving operational excellence and
focus on a strategy for business
growth — that’s at the heart of
everything here,” said Hoeg. “And
the great thing is that all of those
focuses are scalable for whatever
size or scope you are. It all starts
with communicating and
listening to people; both your
team and your customers.”
Despite being the key decision-
makers, too many manufacturers
develop strategies to achieve
what they think their customers
want and what they think their
team is capable of. By placing
communication front-and-center,
Nexteer has gone further than
they ever could have if they’d
kept guessing the customer’s
needs and hoping they were right.
“The last decade has been an
incredible journey for us. We’ve
increased our depth and breadth
of products, completed crucial
process integration, generated
new R&D capability, placed
innovation front and center and
expanded our global footprint,”
Hoeg emphasized. “That all
happened because we truly
listened and delivered. The more
we’re communicating, the more
we learn; and the more we learn,
the more we can position
Nexteer to be an OEM’s go-to
source for every intuitive motion
control challenge.”
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