About
After a career spanning a variety of manufacturing industries, Bruce started BCB Manufacturing Solutions to follow his passion for helping small to medium size manufacturing companies grow profitably. His experience in public, private, family, & private equity business structures led him to his fundamental belief that it all starts with people.
“In my experience, investing in your people — giving them the tools and processes needed to be successful — is absolutely essential.”
Bruce Bechtel, Owner
Industry Experience
Aerospace
Municipal Equipment
Material Handling
Rail Industry
Background
Bruce began his manufacturing career at Northrop Aircraft Division in Hawthorne, CA, completing a two-year rotational Manufacturing Engineering training program. Here he gained exposure to engineering best practices in machining, fabrication, composites, assembly and production systems for the B-2, F/A-18, and 747 programs. The next two years Bruce served as an Offsite Manufacturing Engineer supporting Northrop’s supply chain.
1986
In 1990 Bruce returned to his home state of Illinois joining Elgin Sweeper Company – a subsidiary of Federal Signal Corporation. During his eleven-year tenure Bruce’s career advanced assuming increasing roles of responsibility in manufacturing management ultimately being promoted to Director of Manufacturing where he led the sales/operations planning process. Under his leadership, revenues grew 48% while manufacturing headcount only grew 12%. At Elgin Sweeper Bruce mastered essential aspects of operational excellence including the implementation of key capital investments, Lean/continuous improvement techniques, and people development.
1990
Bruce relocated to south suburban Chicago in 2001 joining Whiting Corporation – an engineered solutions provider of traveling overhead cranes and railcar/locomotive maintenance lifting systems. During his eleven years at Whiting Bruce served as VP of Operations helping transform a mature business by right sizing headcount and focusing commercially on sales funnel management. During Bruce’s tenure Whiting’s sales more than doubled while profitability grew by a factor of 5X.
2001
Since 2012 Bruce has served executive leadership roles across five companies in the private, private equity, and family business spaces. Highlights include serving as a mentorship bridge between generations of a family business, orchestrating the successful one-year turnaround of private equity-owned Midland Stamping and Fabricating including leading the successful business sale process, adding operational systems to Brennan’s growing business, and implementing a production system to support Holland’s MobileWelder vehicle fleet replacement after a ten-year build hiatus. Two common themes existed in each of these stops: people development and a continuous improvement focus.
2012-Present
Bruce is a south suburban Chicago native and a proud graduate of Homewood-Flossmoor High School. He earned a BS in Manufacturing Technology from Bradley University and earned his MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology with an emphasis on Operations Management.
Over the course of his career Bruce has been active in the Association of Manufacturing Excellence’s (AME) Chicagoland Lean Consortium, co-founded and chaired the Manufacturing Excellence executive advisory group and served on Bradley University’s Industrial & Manufacturing Technology (IMET) industrial advisory committee. He has served the community by coaching youth sports, supporting marching bands, and in various church leadership roles.
Bruce currently resides in New Lenox, IL – he enjoys spending time with his wife and adult children as well as his recreational interests of sports, music, and travel.