Where is the fate of the auto parts factory?


Chem366 - Volkswagen is entering the quagmire in which Ford and General Motors are all in the deep: stripping off their own parts factories. The news came out just when GM was getting burned by Delphi's bankruptcy. It is not appropriate for the public to do so.

For auto executives, selling or detaching parts and components is a good strategy, which will bring them praise from shareholders, investment funds and banks. This strategy has too many reasons to explain: first, the cost is reduced, the company can purchase lower-priced parts from the market; secondly, the company can devote more energy to brand promotion and vehicle design with higher profit return; Finally, when it comes to the level of division of labor and the use of global advantages, this strategy is more in line with the international image of a big car company. The company is no longer a omnipotent maker but an all-in-one integrator.

In October last year, Volkswagen AG announced the auction of Gedas, an IT service subsidiary. This move is considered to be a step in the mass cost reduction plan. Volkswagen has thus become the second of the world's top ten automakers, outsourcing the IT business to IT service providers.

However, in the automotive industry, outsourcing is always faced with many contrary examples. At present, Ford of the United States, Toyota and Honda of Japan, and Peugeot of France still retain considerable IT departments. BMW of Germany also recently acquired an IT service company to strengthen its own subsidiary.

This time, Volkswagen also saw the opposite in the outsourcing of parts and components. The experience of Ford and GM fully reflects the danger of outsourcing strategy. In the automotive industry, the smallest possible vertical integration, that is, the ability to outsource processing to others as much as possible according to the production process, was once considered a magic weapon to solve any problems. They think that the many elements in the supply chain are handed over to third-party vendors, and they can focus on core research and development and marketing. But things are not so simple.

Delphi and Visteon used to be the GM and Ford parts supply department respectively. Since the date of their being stripped, they have been cut off from the parent company. Now Ford and GM have had to pay a huge price for their restructuring. When Delphi announced its bankruptcy protection, General Motors, which is associated with it, could not find a second path other than bankruptcy protection. Opel, the European subsidiary of General Motors, could not find a buyer for its parts factory in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Let's look at successful examples. Porsche is undoubtedly the successful outsourcing executor, with less than 20% vertical integration (ie 80% of the components are provided externally). Toyota is another example of success. It personally manufactures the vast majority of parts rather than buying them. For example, 70% of Toyota's Hybrid Prius is made by itself. This not only ensures that the company's core technology is not obtained by competitors but also ensures continuous high product quality.

Why is this so? Obviously, outsourcing is not a panacea. The strategy that works for niche markets (such as where Porsche is) does not necessarily apply to large-scale manufacturers, such as GM.

One thing is right. A well-run car company should not make those simple components such as exhaust equipment, model products, axles, and those that require high investment, such as brake systems and engine control.

But what about the seat? Each part on the car will not be closer to the user than the seat. A comfortable seat may decide to buy once. When the wave of outsourcing is at its height and all cars use the same seat, steering wheel and transmission system, then all cars will lose their own characteristics and users can pick and choose.

For the automotive industry, while experiencing decades of development and achieving high standardization, many manufacturers may have forgotten the ability to differentiate themselves by making high profits, such as advanced technology and unique design. More and more manufacturers choose to develop different shapes of vehicles on the same platform. When their component suppliers tend to be consistent, they can only swallow the bitter profits.

Outsourcing is not a wrong strategy, but a correct strategy should first be based on the analysis of its own technologies, products and markets. Moreover, the first priority of strategy is differentiation. The strategy for Toyota will certainly not bring good luck to GM.

Returning to the public's example, no matter what, selling spare parts factories would not solve the core problem of the public: its factories have not been fully utilized, but they have paid workers excessively high salaries. If the public is still out of the dream of outsourcing to solve all these problems, they will not be able to solve these problems quickly, and its days will soon become difficult.

In the same way, those Chinese car companies that intend to absorb global wisdom and grow up should also think about what way they want to go.

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