The generalization of parts should aim at high-end technology

Japanese automobile and motorcycle companies will join hands to establish an “International Standards Seminar” to unify specifications for highly versatile parts and automotive semiconductors, so as to reduce CNC parts development and production costs and enhance the competitiveness of Japanese cars.

cut costs

With the development of globalization, countries are working hard to reduce costs. At first, due to high logistics costs, many auto companies realized local production and opened factories overseas. Later, it was discovered that the effect of building factories overseas was not significant for reducing costs, so the company adopted an internal platform strategy. Until recently, an alliance of parts and technology commonality among enterprises was proposed.

In fact, the generalization of parts was not first proposed by Toyota. In 1993, when the world economy was in recession, in order to control the cost of automobile manufacturing, European companies represented by Volkswagen frequently carried out the design of generalized parts and components. After that, they launched their own platform-based strategies. Enterprise internal. Subsequently, many companies are also following the implementation of platform strategies. In fact, car companies at that time were already experimenting with the sweetness of common parts.

The modular platform of Volkswagen’s MQB/MLB and Renault-Nissan’s CMF; Toyota’s TNGA has improved the versatility of parts and components, and the final universal ratio will reach 70% to 80%. This product architecture platform has been effective within Toyota; Mazda SKYACTIVEE creates Chi Laotian technology, pan-platform development. The purpose of these different platforms is to reduce costs.

In 2011, Japan’s Toyota Corporation once advocated domestic automakers to form a unified standardized (universal) system in the production of parts. It is reported that at that time, the generalization of parts between enterprises has been tried in Japan and has achieved results. Japanese small cars have begun to standardize some parts such as steel plates and automotive semiconductors. Experiments have proved that by reducing the production of products, the effect of reducing parts procurement costs by about 5% has been achieved.

Regarding the inter-enterprise cooperation proposed by 14 Japanese car companies in recent days, it is nothing more than cooperation between OEMs and cooperation between OEMs and parts companies. It is understood that vehicle companies such as Volkswagen and Daimler are currently working with large-scale parts manufacturers such as Bosch in Europe to standardize parts to reduce the development and production costs of parts.

Whether it is platform or generalization of auto parts, it is an indisputable fact that all scientific research forces are concentrated on joint research and development, upgrading and innovation, which not only improves the technological content but also reduces the cost of development, manufacturing, procurement and use. At the same time, component suppliers will no longer cause disorderly competition because of lower prices.

“Parts standardization is helpful to improve the efficiency of vehicle research and development, shorten the development cycle, reduce procurement costs, reduce quality risks, assembly processes, manufacturing costs of the vehicle plant, etc.” Accepting Ning Xiaoping, chief engineer of China Auto Parts Industry Corporation Said in a media interview.

The risk is still there

However, some experts pointed out that this large-scale generalization of parts and components will also bring certain risks.

Because, in the early stage of generalization of parts and components, many market trials, verifications, designs, and repeated tests are required. This technology reduces costs and needs to control customer complaints due to potential quality problems. After the parts are generalized, once the parts have problems, it is easy to cause chain recalls.

This problem has been learned before. From 2009 to 2010, Toyota announced a series of recalls, and the total number of recalls exceeded its 2009 output. The turmoil caused heavy losses to Toyota’s global reputation and economy. The main reason for the recall is that the parts and components supplied by the suppliers have quality problems. The common platform of parts and components involves many models, resulting in many recalls.

On April 27, 2009, Shanghai General Motors Co., Ltd., Chongqing Chang a Ford Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd., and FAW Car Co., Ltd. jointly recalled 13,549 vehicles of 6 models in China due to defects in the same parts. car. Many car companies announced the recall on the same day due to quality problems of parts produced by the same parts manufacturer. This is still rare in the history of Chinese car recalls.

Jia Xinguang, an automotive analyst, said that a car is composed of tens of thousands of parts. As long as one of the parts has quality problems or design defects, it will bury hidden dangers in the car. If there is a problem with the generalized parts, a large-scale recall is inevitable.

Test Chinese companies

It is an indisputable fact that China has become the world’s largest producer and seller of automobiles. However, the independent parts industry of China’s auto industry is still very unsuitable for the needs of vehicle development, which has dragged down the healthy development of China’s auto industry. There are nearly 8,000 parts and components companies above the designated size in my country, but few companies can produce high-quality, high-tech parts and components, and most of them are in the state of imitation or partial development. The gap between the level of equipment in my country and foreign countries is about 10-15 years.

Insiders believe that the collective promotion of common parts by Japanese car companies means that car companies are promoting common parts from internal to external alliances. In the future, this generalization of parts and components in the overall industry will be the general trend.

During the interview, some people worried that the generalization of parts and components would have an impact on China’s independent brands and the Chinese parts industry. Regarding this, Chen Guangzhou, a well-known expert in auto parts, a member of the China Automotive Industry Advisory Committee, and a senior expert in the Chinese auto industry, believes that the generalization of parts and components will positively promote the development of China’s parts industry. He said that the level of production of basic general-purpose auto parts in China is not bad internationally, and he should have confidence in this. He told reporters that now is not the time to shop around, and strategic synergy alliances are very important. It is quite normal for Toyota to produce and process a certain general-purpose component in India or in China. We still have confidence in the international competition of basic parts. In addition, any car company will certainly choose high-quality, local companies when entrusting parts and components processing, and will not give up the shortest distance, so as to achieve the goal of reducing costs.

During the interview, industry experts agreed that Chinese companies must also see the importance of unified standards and full collaboration. To make breakthroughs in this area at this stage, the most important thing is to strengthen platform construction, because the platform strategy is not only It means that the research and development of independent brand car companies will be more efficient and formal, and it will also enable independent brand car companies to realize a virtuous cycle in the entire value chain from parts and components, to vehicle production, and to after-sales service.

Chen Guangzhou said that in the past 80% of the parts and components were processed by automakers themselves. With the development of the internationalization of automobiles, the energy of automakers is now basically focused on scientific research and model development. Apple never develops spare parts, they develop integrated system software.

Chen Guangzhou believes that the generalization of parts and components should not focus on cost reduction, but should fall on high-end cooperation. The cooperation for a certain basic generalized component is not the ultimate goal, and the collaboration is of little significance. Such a product will not be the core. Chen Guangzhou believes that cooperation in a high-end, forward-looking and competitive project like New Energy is the ultimate goal.