Tools, dies and moulds Workshop

Transcription

1 Tools, dies and moulds Workshop Facilitators: Professor E. Beira, General Manager of ISTMA World. L. Marandon, Strategic Market Development of Uddeholm. This report summarizes the results of the Tools, dies and moulds Workshop that was held during the Uddeholm Automotive Seminar 2007, Spa Hotel Sunne in Sweden on February 8th. The main objectives of the workshop were to enable business networking and international team-working when discussing the increasing demands of the car producers. In the section below summaries of the discussions are presented. Hypothesis 1 To meet the increasing demands of the car producers in terms of costs, delivery time and quality, the automotive component manufacturers have been developing strategic partnership with all the other suppliers from different trade. Source ; Sessi (2005) 1

2 Q1- How would you define the strategic partnership with the tooling sector (key drivers)? A question that was brought up during the discussion was: What is the real strategy of the car industry?. Carmakers are losing tooling technical capabilities. There is a need for partnerships between the toolmakers and the car industry. At the moment there is a very asymmetrical relationship between these tool-makers (generally too small) and the car industry (generally too powerful bargaining power for purchasing). Toolmaker networks are needed. There was also a discussion about the new French agreement/partnership between tooling and the car industry that has been signed recently (incl. payment terms etc). Q2- Regarding the relation with multinationals, how do you see the possible international cooperation with tool-makers? Car manufacturers and component manufacturers are outsourcing. However, they need to keep control of the supply chain for cost and quality reasons for instance. It is essential for the car-makers to get the input from toolmakers in form of co-engineering solutions and at the early stage. Though, the responsibilities between car-makers, component manufacturers and the toolmakers are not very clear sometimes. In consequence, a key issue for the car-maker and the component manufacturers is to specify very explicitly their needs (ie clear specifications and standards), then involving the tool-makers. A strong statement from an OEM was given ; on the global market place, an OEM can get anything needed in due time, as long as it knows precisely what it needs!. Specifications and standards help to move from implicit needs to explicit needs. 2

3 To have a good level of communication is a key success factor in order to reduce lead time and ease project management on an international level. It is also of importance that the hidden costs (represented by The Cost Iceberg see appendix) are identified and addressed. Q3- What could be the role of a supplier like Uddeholm? Uddeholm should continue to be a supplier of high quality tool steel, providing solutions. This company needs to respond to the demand of specific steels for different uses. On the markets, Uddeholm needs to find out the demand of the material as well as the demand of tool-makers. It cannot only deliver steel but also very accurate technical information and support. Since, the delivery time is seen as very high priority there is a demand for international specifications/ numbers/names that are comparable and compatible. Another craving for information has to do with the increasing prices of tooling materials. The toolmakers need information about the future trends in that respect. A suggestion is to have regular meetings with technicians of Uddeholm. Hypothesis 2 The fast renewal of range of cars and the reduction of the production cycle lead the component manufacturers to invest greater amounts on R&D. Source ; Sessi (2005) 3

4 What are the main implications of shorter production cycle on the tooling sector? Involve the tool-makers as soon as possible in the production cycle. Also, more equipment availability is needed in form of more capital and better networking of toolmakers (to share capacities). In order to be able to reduce the delivery time, it is important to have longterm partnerships and a stable cooperation on the long run. This can be in form of more local partnerships as tooling requires services (ie try-out, maintenance). Indeed, service is a key success factor in the manufacturing sector, as far as tooling is concerned. This can only be local! (ie stamping, die casting). At last, it is mentioned that concurrent engineering, often used in the West is not used in Asia, because often inefficient. How the tooling sector adapt to this challenge? Implementation of planning must cover lead time. The company should be able to manufacture any of its products as soon as they are ordered, without facing high setup time or costs. Before that, customers need to define what they want and be aware of their implication on the delivery time. After all, managing the customers is also a cost. A quote from the MD of a well-known tool-maker said 10% of my time is making moulds, 90% of my time is managing customer relationship!. How a supplier like Uddeholm can support the tooling sector and their customer in that respect? An illustrative summary of the discussion: Customer Toolmakers Uddeholm Information Information R&D R&D 4

5 Purchasing Manufacturing Purchasing Manufacturing Tooling and the automobile industry foes or friends? (E. Beira) With new partnerships, cooperation and communication we are heading a better and friendlier future. The car industry asks for longer payment times but the real big problem is that banks do not want to finance automotive projects any longer. This calls for a troublesome environment in short term. Conclusion Companies must constantly reduce production costs, but at the same time are expected to maintain high quality and production standards. Information, consultation, communication and partnership are four constantly recurring prerequisites in the discussions. Uddeholm should not only be a supplier of steel but also a supplier of information and solutions. To understand and be able to interpret the information there is a need of consultation. For this to work efficiently, the communication has to be in order. The fourth and last prerequisite is partnership. To be able to change the asymmetrical relationship between tooling and the car industry there is a need of toolmaker networks for instance. At last, car-makers and component manufacturers would need to see that to get the tooling they require in time, they need to move from implicit needs to explicit detailed needs. 5