Battle of the SensorsSuppliers will display run-flat systems at SAE expo

Bob Toth has a lot of faith in the "geniuses in the electronics industry."The folks who gave us a $10 calculator, he figures, surely can produce a low-cost sensor that alerts drivers to an impending flat tire.Several companies already have developed the sensors that are essential for so-called "run-flat" tires - the ones that can drive long distances (up to 200 miles [322 km] on Corvette) without

By Tom Murphy • March 1, 1999

Clean Sweep Some suppliers would rather leave automotive than deal withQS-9000

It may not have been intended as such, but QS-9000, the quality requirement of U.S. automakers, stands to rid the auto industry of dozens of small suppliers that are unable - or unwilling - to fully embrace the concept.The industry launched QS-9000 in 1994 to give suppliers a standard, comprehensive procedure to follow for meeting the product quality targets demanded by General Motors Corp., Ford

By Tom Murphy • Feb. 1, 1999

Explore the Trendline➔

Automotive Manufacturing

Production strategies are changing rapidly as tariffs and shifts in consumer buying patterns affect the industry.

By WardsAuto staff

Birth of a Supplier--With four employees, ASCI joins push for smart air bags

Until 1992, Philip Kithil didn't know much about cars or the intricacies of air bag systems. He had been a lobbyist for a hotel association in New Mexico and had worked in advertising and promotions. He had even tried manufacturing skiing and camping gear.But in March of that year, his 17-year-old daughter had a car accident that changed his life, even though she wasn't seriously injured. The wreck

By Tom Murphy • Jan. 1, 1999

Suppliers Question GM’s Payment Timing

Despite a recent WAW survey in which suppliers judged General Motors Corp. the best auto-maker to work with (see WAW - July '98, p.66), reports are trickling out that GM is taking up to 120 days, and in some cases even longer, to pay for work delivered.GM says it isn't so."We did change the payment structure so that checks go out on the second day of the second month, and the reason for that was to

Nov. 1, 1998

A Golden Opportunity Continental eyes ‘intelligent tire’ with ITTA brakes

Continental AG's pending purchase of ITT Automotive's Brake and Chassis operations for $1.9 billion represents the latest shake-up in the volatile brake component market.Robert Bosch Corp. acquired AlliedSignal's foundation brake business in 1996. The former braking business of VarityKelsey-Hayes became LucasVarity in a 1996 merger and will now become part of LucasVarity Automotive. LucasVarity also

By Tom Murphy • Oct. 1, 1998

Modular Squad Suppliers market suspension-brake assemblies

he idea of one partsmaker supplying a "corner module" that integrates suspension and braking components is relatively foreign in the United States.A number of vehicle platforms in Europe and South America employ the concept with success, but the double wishbone-type suspensions in many U.S.-market vehicles make it difficult to install such large one-piece modules.All that is about to change."We're

By Tom Murphy • Sept. 1, 1998

Suppliers unite for a stronger voice

Automaking's full of acronyms: USCAR, NHTSA, EPA, CAFE. So, why not add another?This year's Traverse City gathering - officially the University of Michigan Management Briefing Seminars - served as the launching point for the newest of the bunch.AOESA (Automotive Original Equipment Suppliers Assn.) doesn't quite roll off your tongue, but organizers hope it will provide a greater collective voice for

By Barbara McClellan • Sept. 1, 1998

CAW steps up organizing at Magna plants

With Magna International Inc. expanding and promoting its ability to build complete vehicles, the Canadian Auto Workers union is intensifying efforts to organize workers at plants owned by the Markham, Ont. mega-supplier. Graham Orr, Magna's executive vice president, says the company's entrepreneurial culture, strong communication system and profit-sharing plan make unions unnecessary. Last April

Aug. 1, 1998

Wards Supplier Survey We’re listening’... and you’ve got a lot on your mind

Oh great! Another survey.Just what we all need when we get home from work is a two-page questionnaire asking us everything except our favorite color.Sure, we'll get around to it, as soon as we dispose of the junk mail, pay the paperboy, hang up on the meddlesome telephone solicitors and boot the guy at the door asking us to sign his "save the dryer lint" petition.Will "free time" ever mean anything

By Tom Murphy • July 1, 1998

Asahi buys PPG’s European Operations

The European assets of PPG Industries glass operations are being purchased by Asahi Glass, parent company of North American automotive glass supplier AP Technoglass. The $230 million deal will double Asahi's European market share. Glaverbel, an Asahi affiliate, currently operates factories in Belgium, The Netherlands, Czech Republic and Russia. PPG's current European operations generate annual sales

July 1, 1998

Minority Suppliers Get a Boost

For years, minority-owned companies have done the grunt work of the automotive industry in the shadow of the major Tier 1 suppliers.While big multi-national suppliers with deep pockets dazzle auto executives with sophisticated products or their ability to integrate components into ready-to-assemble systems, the role of minority suppliers generally has been more modest: often making money on simple,

By Jeff Green, Jackson, Kathi, Tom Murphy • July 1, 1998

The ‘American Autobahn’--German and other suppliers cruise into South Carolina

The future looked bleak for South Carolina in the early 1990s. Alabama had beaten out its southern neighbor for the coveted Mercedes-Benz plant. Textiles and tobacco, two of the state's top industries, were struggling. When the Pentagon announced plans in 1992 to shut down the enormous Charleston Naval Base and Shipyard, many knew it couldn't get any worse.They were right, and the automotive industry

By Tom Murphy • June 1, 1998

New Glow-in-the-Dark Plastic Technology

Headlamp Optical Concept Introduced Valeo Sylvania introduces the new Baroptic headlamp, which provides flexibility in the front-end styling of vehicles, while optimizing aerodynamics. Due by 2000, the system's bulk is significantly reduced as compared with complex-shape headlamp technology allowing enhanced management of "under-hood" packaging. The Baroptic headlamp can be positioned vertically,

May 1, 1998

Materials Suppliers Continue Global Push Asia remains a powerful lure for most

Eric Carlson, a marketing manager at DuPont Automotive who spent years in China, says that being successful there is like crossing a wide and busy street in Beijing."Imagine thousands of bicycles per minute passing in front of you; there's never a break, and you want to get to the other side. No one will stop for you to cross, so you have to take the first step on your own. Start on a determined course,

By Drew Winter • May 1, 1998

$20 Million Tax Break Lures Bosch to Michigan

This time it's official. Robert Bosch Corp. will move its Braking Div. headquarters from South Bend, IN, to its corporate campus in Farmington Hills, MI, employing about 475 people. Bosch had announced the move last May, but then said it was considering staying in Indiana. But a $20.8-million tax break from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority made the decision a little easier. Groundbreaking is

April 1, 1998

New Driveshaft Absorbs Crash Energy

Energy absorbing collapsible steering columns have vastly improved the safety of modern-day vehicles. Now Dana Corp.'s Spicer Driveshaft Div. is applying a similar principle to driveshaft technology that will be used on global car and truck platforms starting as early as the 2000 model year.Instead of being simply a straight tube that can fracture unpredictably in a major crash, the new driveshaft

April 1, 1998

PCs Merging with Cars and Trucks

Just when you were getting used to driving, talking on the cellular phone and drinking your morning cappuccino simultaneously, the giants of the computer and automotive supplier industry want you to be able to operate your personal computer while you drive, too.Auto PC is the cutting edge technology showcased at this year's SAE International Congress and Exhibition, and General Motors Corp.'s Delphi

April 1, 1998

Quick Change Artist Richard Snell: The man who saved Federal-Mogul

When Richard Snell became the new chief executive of Federal-Mogul Corp. in November 1996, he arrived with a bitter pill for the company to swallow.In the end, the medicine he prescribed would not only save the automotive supplier from a painful and uncertain future, but would more than double the company's size in little more than a year and send its stock soaring.At the time, Federal-Mogul's board

By Tom Murphy • March 1, 1998

Noise Still an Issue With Plastic Intakes Suppliers fight problem with newtechnology

It's hard not to believe engine intake manifolds made of plastic eventually will take over under the hood. Proponents argue convincingly that plastic manifolds - usually glass-reinforced nylon 6/6 - are substantially lighter and less expensive than those made of metals such as aluminum. The interior surfaces of plastic intake runners also are smoother. That translates into less turbulent airflow through

By Drew Winter • Jan. 1, 1998

Field of Opportunity Transplants’ commitment to minority suppliers questioned

Harold Kutner sees opportunity rising from the dust of Cadillac's old Clark Street Assembly Plant in southwest Detroit.Vitec, a joint venture between Michigan-based Walbro Corp. and businessmen William Pickard and Lawrence Crawford, will make plastic fuel tanks at the old Cadillac site in Detroit's Empowerment Zone, beginning in July.The minority company has lined up about $640 million in business

By Tom Murphy • Dec. 1, 1997

Seeking the Perfect Mate Weak profits, niches, new markets drive suppliers

Missed opportunity" is a term auto supplier executives don't like to hear, at least in reference to their own companies.In the face of narrow profit margins and deep price cuts, when a potentially lucrative corporate marriage presents itself, no one wants to be left at the altar. Perhaps that explains why the frenetic pace of mergers and acquisitions was the top story of 1997 on the automotive supply

By Tom Murphy • Dec. 1, 1997

Give ‘Em What They Want Breed, Siemens sign deal for restraint systems

Barely a month after announcing its purchase of AlliedSignal's Safety Restraints business, Breed Technologies inks yet another major deal to help plant its feet squarely in the market of complete occupant restraint systems.The Lakeland, FL, company had been a relatively small supplier of sensors, air bag modules and inflators when it stepped to the head of the North American seat belt market in September

By Tom Murphy • Nov. 1, 1997

Magna’s Bright Idea Decoma enters lighting market with high hopes for LED

Are you crazy? is a question Joseph Griffin is getting tired of answering.No, the engineering manager for Magna International's Decoma Exterior Systems does not belong in a straightjacket, and yes, his company is serious about entering the exterior lighting market, first in North America, then going global later on.The response from some automotive executives to the idea has less to do with Decoma's

By Tom Murphy • Nov. 1, 1997

After the battle: as smoke clears, mirror makers aren’t looking back

Holland, MI - For most of the last seven years, Gentex Corp. and Donnelly Corp. spent so much money - a collective $30 million - trying to destroy each other in court that most folks forget, if they ever knew, what exactly these two western Michigan automotive suppliers actually manufactured.They make mirrors - regular prismatic mirrors and electrochromic mirrors, the kind that can sense when that

By Gardner, Greg • Dec. 1, 1996

Executives on the move

While most supplier executives bask in profits and look forward to more of the same with a strong 1997 auto motive market, two big names in the supplier community are moving on to greater challenges.ITT Automotive President Timothy D. Leuliette goes to a similar post at Penske Corp. and Tenneco Inc. President Richard A. Snell becomes chairman and CEO at the troubled Federal-Mogul Corp. in the wake

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 1996