Hidden underneath the hood or sandwiched inside the door, the products manufactured at Dowagiac’s Creative Foam factory play a critical — yet invisible — role inside the vehicle of drivers all over the globe.

Until now, that is.

Recently, the foam fabrication plant began production of a new rear seat back panel for Ford’s F-250 pickup truck, and its first auto part made at the plant that can be easily exposed by the owner. As such, the company had to comply with strict limits on the color and appearance of the finished panel, meeting a certain tone of black to conform with the builder’s specifications.

“It’s a stepping stone for us,” said plant manager David Szynski. “Everything we’ve made up until now has been underneath another part of the vehicle, and people couldn’t even see our work unless they really worked at it.”

Creative Foam is the only plant in the world producing the part for Ford’s Kentucky Truck Assembly plant in Louisville, and is expected to ship out more than 15,000 units a year.

With this and other new product demands placed upon their existing staff and equipment, the company has decided to reinvest in both, pouring nearly $772,000  worth of machinery and upgrades to its Ruby Road plant.

The City of Dowagiac recently approved a tax abatement request from Creative for the investments.

The company expects to add 10 new assembly and machine operation jobs over the next several months to handle the increased workload, adding to the 160 employees currently working there.

The new challenge is the latest expansion opportunity that the 35-year-old factory has seized in recent years in coordination with the city, Szynski said.

“The city has been really good in working with us, especially [economic development consultant] Cynthia LaGrow and [city manager] Kevin Anderson,” the plant manager said.

The partnership between the two entities began in earnest after the community was hit by the 2008 recession, Szynski said. LaGrow approached Creative about working together to keep the fabricator in Dowagiac following the closing of National Copper plant, which cost the community 175 jobs.

“The city has recognized the need to keep businesses here, and they do everything in their reach to make sure that happens,” Szynski said. “They don’t want to lose us, and I don’t want to lose this plant.”

Since then, the city has approved several tax abatement proposals for the plant, which has steadily regained the many of the positions that were shed during the economic downturn. Today, the plant is shipping close to 300 different parts to auto manufacturers all over the world, including Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Nissan and Honda, Szynski said.

“It’s exciting to see how we’ve grown,” he said. “We’re about at the walls right now. We’re pretty full.”

The Dowagiac plant is one of nine plants that Creative Foam owns, across six states. In total, the company, which is headquartered in Fenton, employs 1,000 people across the U.S.

Szynski has worked at the local plant for nearly 20 years, seeing manufacturer double its output since he first started, he said. He’s hardly the only seasoned employee on staff, though: one of his subordinates has been working there for more than three decades, he said.

“Creative Foam has been good to me, and to our employees,” he said. “We wouldn’t have people working for us for 33 years if we weren’t.”