New element automotive parts manufacturers are also facing great competition

It is not only the entire vehicle manufacturing plant that is involved in the re-combination vortex. The parts manufacturing plant is also driven by the waves of great competition. European car manufacturers are being dominated by the "integrated production revolution." That is, the component manufacturing plant is located near the vehicle manufacturing plant, and a component assembly factory is set up to assemble the "integrated assembly" of the assembly at the assembly plant. The parts are directly transported to the product assembly line by the transmission belt. Due to the "integration" of components, assembly engineering has also been greatly simplified, and costs have been reduced due to the "universalization" of components. The entire vehicle manufacturing plant is also an integrated unit, and the parts and components that can be processed and processed by the external parties can also be processed by the company. In this way, the integration and expansion of parts factories has been implemented not only to the product manufacturing stage but also to the integrated development strategy from the design and development stages. The second section guides the expansion of a company to the world.

First, a single source of parts

With the progress of integration, the situation of buying the same parts from many different manufacturers in the past has been changed, and only a single part has been bought from the same manufacturing plant, so the scale of production has been expanded and the cost has been reduced. For example, the new car "S80" sold by Volvo of Sweden in May 1998, due to the adoption of the above-mentioned simplification measures, reduced the parts factory by half. In addition, the joint and acquisition activities between auto parts factories in the US are also actively underway.

In order to achieve and adapt to the purpose and requirements of supplying components on a world scale, a multinational joint venture has also been formed.

Second, the platform strategy

The generalization of body parts is a major initiative to achieve integration, the world-wide supply of components and the single source of components, and the cost reduction of production plants.

The basic part of the car, including the engine, transmission, drive axle, suspension, steering gear, etc., that is, the basic part of the car is called a vehicle platform. Different models adopt the same platform, that is, all parts that are invisible around the exterior of the vehicle are universalized. This is called a platform strategy. The basic part above basically determines the performance of the car. Two-thirds of the cost of car development comes from this part. Due to the generalization of this part, the cost of production, the cost of maintenance of parts and components, etc. have been greatly reduced. For example, the platform model will be reduced from 16 to 4 by platform strategy. In Japan, there were 25 types of Nissan in Japan in 997, and it was reduced to 14 in 2000. It is planned to reduce it to 10 in 2002. Mitsubishi will also reduce its own number from 12 to 6 and Toyota will reduce from the current 12 to 7 (Front drive 4 kinds of car, 3 kinds of rear car). In order to adapt to the competitive situation and the needs of users, various manufacturers have developed a variety of models at the same time as the platform's generalization.