A unique venture between two automotive supply and technology giants promises to bring innovative and smart styling to the new mid-size vehicles rolling off the Lansing Delta Township assembly plant this fall.

Located on the corner of Mount Hope Avenue and Canal Road, Bridgewater Technologies joins a vast chain of automotive suppliers supporting General Motors’ new automotive plant. The company also symbolizes the front line of business, new to the region, currently making Lansing home.

“We’re a brand-new facility, built from the ground up,” said plant manager Kevin Suppelsa of the 130,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art operation. “We’re excited to be here in Lansing, and believe in supporting the communities we operate in.”

The Lansing facility joins three other Bridgewater plants in Detroit, Warren and Oxford, Ala., which provide product to General Motors, Ford, Honda and Daimler-Chrysler. Established in 1998 by Johnson Controls Inc., and Epsilon Technologies, Bridgewater is certified as a minority business enterprise by the Michigan Minority Business Development Council, and has been ranked by Black Enterprise magazine as the third largest African-American owned industrial service company in the nation.

“We’ll only be supplying the Delta Plant from this site,” said Suppelsa of the plant that opened in April and becomes operational this fall. “We’re very excited to be part of the area and be part of the new vehicle being made here.”

Bridgewater will make seats and overhead systems for mid-size vehicles made at the new assembly plant. Those products include the Smart Slide seat--a system unique to the industry that allows greater access and brings more legroom to the second row of mini-van and crossover platforms.

“It’s a real consumer-pleaser,” said Suppelsa of the adjustable second-row seat that enables quick, easy movement to provide access to a vehicle’s third row. “It’s very user friendly--even easier to operate than a front seat—and it gives you 18 inches of access. It’s almost like a third door into the vehicle.”

Through a series of pivot points, the second-row seat cushion flips up, and the seat back slides forward toward the front seats. Designed for one-hand operation, the Smart Slide will be standard on all second-row configurations for the 2007 Saturn Outlook coming off the Delta Township line.

The company will also supply overhead systems that contain the headliner, sun visors, and console that includes various convenience and safety devices.

Bridgewater plans to retain a workforce of up to 650 employees to build the unique seating and overhead systems they will supply to the Delta plant.  The supplier hired about 130 employees in late summer, and has added about 20 employees a week through the fall.  Employees were hired through an initial job fair, then weekly job fairs, through the Capital Area Michigan Works! office.

“We hired from the three counties around Lansing, and try to limit bringing in outside people,” said Suppelsa, adding that the company may bring on another shift in the next year. “That’s one of the reasons we’re here: to promote employment in this area.”

Suppelsa continuously used the word “team” when describing the various new jobs through Bridgewater. In hiring, he said, the company looks for people with experience with seating systems, but ultimately looks for people who have a good team fit.

“We look at how individuals interact with larger groups of people,” he said, “and for people who are safety conscious, quality focused and put the customer in front of everyone else.”

Employees at Bridgewater work in cells or groups, with employees needing to know their job as well as their teammates. The company promotes an open-door culture in which any employee can bring forward an issue--particularly if it pertains to safety--and have a response within 10 to 15 minutes.

“We’re a flat organization where everyone has a voice,” said Suppelsa. “Our jobs are team oriented, have lots of growth potential, and we do like to promote from within.”

Suppelsa himself has built his career through Johnson Controls, having started as an engineer at the Plymouth headquarters nearly 20 years ago.

New to Lansing, Suppelsa is quick to say he’s impressed by the quality of the employees hailing from the tri-county area. He said, too, that GM leadership were taken by the enthusiasm of the Lansing-based workforce.

“One of our biggest compliments from GM leadership related to a presentation two hourly employees made on one of GM’s recent visits,” said Suppelsa. “That presentation, they said, was the best part of the meeting, and really showed how employees take ownership and are excited about what we’re doing here.”