Suppliers: Page

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

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

Explore the Trendline➔

Autonomous Vehicles

Automakers continue to make big investments in autonomous vehicles. We’ve put together a curated list of stories showcasing the technologies and strategies propelling autonomy.

By WardsAuto staff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

$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

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to alligator alley: supplier consolidation craze sometimes leads to rocky marriages

Supplier consolidation - or "merger-mania" as it is being referred to by some - is no walk in the park. In fact, some companies that enter into corporate wedlock find the stroll can be quite treacherous.Stephen J. Girsky, a principal and automotive analyst at Morgan Stanley A Co., says his firm has tracked 75 supplier mergers and acquisitions worth $17 billion since February 1995. The current pace

By Tim Keenan • 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

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

Bosch raises the bar: microelectronic advances keep company on cutting edge

REUTLINGEN, Germany - You won't find Robert Bosch GmbH's microelectronics plant on any German tourism bureau lists of places to see, but it should be - at least if you have any interest in the future of automobiles.With electronic controls responsible for more vehicle character and personality with each passing model year, where best to look into the automotive crystal ball than at one of the world's

By Tim Keenan • Nov. 1, 1996

Suppliers and the ‘97s

What would happen if auto shows were put on by suppliers? An automaker executive would pull the veil off a new model and the public would ooh and aah as usual. A supplier executive would, in turn, peel the skin off the vehicle, point to his company's technology and the audience would roar its approval. Then the supplier wakes up.The above scene may be a dream right now for suppliers, but with more

By Tim Keenan • Oct. 1, 1996

Breed buys UTA’s steering wheel business

Continuing its aggressive growth, Breed Technologies has agreed to buy United Technologies Automotive's steering wheel operations. While the price was not disclosed initially, the deal is expected to close in late October or early November. It is Breed's fifth acquisition this year. Strategically, it will allow the Lakeland, FL-based supplier to integrate driver's side air bags into the steering wheel.

Oct. 1, 1996