Today we visited the Burke Porter Group in Brugge, Belgium. This company was founded in Grand Rapids, MI more than 60 years ago as a manufacturer of large machines. Today, the Burke Porter Group has aquired lots of different types of companies in an effort to diversify their buisiness.
The building we toured deals specifically with making large machines for “end of line” testing for cars. These machines test things like braking system and autonomous driving systems for major car companies.
Upon our visit, we were first given an extensive summary of how the buisiness has evolved over the years and details of the many different end of line testing systems that were made in the facilities. Then, we were taken for a tour of the facilities to get a more hands-on idea of the production of these machines. It was very interesting to see how they create the same testing machines in slightly different variations in order to satisfy different customer needs.
Burke Porter is a solid company that has worked extensively to diversify in order to succeed. They push the boundaries in various fields and have profited greatly from a hard working mentality. It was a pleasure touring their facilities and learning from them.