Yazaki's wired for the future - Supplier Profile - Brief Article

Automotive Industries, April, 2002 by Lindsay Brooke

Today's wire harness suppliers are now in the electrical distribution systems (EDS) business, as the wire-and-connector architectures of the past slowly give way to wireless technologies and fiber optics. Heading the list of "connectivity" suppliers is Yazaki, the world's leading harness maker with 30 percent share. The company has more than 40 assembly sites in North America, mostly in Mexico.

George Perry, president and chief operating officer of the company's North American operations in Canton, Mich., says orders for 2003 and beyond are extremely promising, particularly with one of the former Big 3 U.S. OEMs and the Japanese transplants.

"The hard part is balancing our resources, streamlining our operations to support growth with the people we now have," explains Perry, who was formerly president of Siemens Automotive North America. The new focus is to build expertise in giving the GEMs alternative electrical architecture concepts -- "to allow them to go where they want in centralized or distributed power in this networked environment"

Instrument clusters are a major product growth area for Yazaki. Currently they account for just six percent of the company's business. The plan is to become a "premier player" in the next two years, he says.

In wire harnesses, Yazaki currently has in excess of 80 percent DaimlerChrysler's business and 22 percent of Ford's. The GM business is "small but growing," Perry says. But he believes Yazaki is well-positioned to take business from Packard-Delphi. "We're already players with the GM group companies -- Subaru, Suzuki, Saab," Perry notes. "If they want a global alternative to Delphi, we're the only one. We're gonna have to perform, but we're in a better position than anyone else."

Continuing to meet OEMs' cost-down mandates means moving more production to lower-cost countries. "Our growth plan calls for opening five new plants a year over the next five years," Perry says. The potential list includes Central America, China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

It is unlikely that harness production will be automated to a greater degree, until wireless is the standard. Perry notes that Yazaki is working on some 2006 vehicle programs and every one of them has a wiring harness with up to 1,260 circuits.