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Automotive Industry

Opening the Door to Modules - North American door-systems market - Brief Article

Automotive Industries, August, 2001 by Lindsay Brooke

Cost reduction is driving the trend, but barriers remain.

For North American automakers, it's being done for cost reduction. Likewise in Europe, where it's also being done to reduce weight and plant floor space. And Japanese automakers are doing it to increase functional integration -- and, of course, reduce cost. Across the industry, vehicle door-hardware assemblies are evolving into door modules, with cost being the common driver in every major region.

As much sense as they seem to make, however, door modules face many of the same barriers to acceptance as other potential modular systems do. Chief among them are paint-match issues and organized labor's resistance to supplier involvement in vehicle assembly operations, according to a recent study of the door-modularization trend by ITB Group Ltd., an international supply-chain consultancy headquartered in Novi, Mich.

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But modular doors are an unstoppable trend, says Jan Kowal, president of door-systems supplier Brose North America in Auburn Hills, Mich.

"Currently, only 10 percent of the North American door-systems market is in modular product, Kowal explains. "However, we project that within four to five years, it will grow to at least 30 percent." Adds John Dunn, vice-president of customer management in Brose's Generai Motors group: "There are very few QEMs who don't have modular door programs up and running."

ITB Group projects that by 2005 about 28 percent of the combined North American and European vehicle markets will have a door module of some description. TB analyst Mitra O'Malley notes that the Japanese market is not far off the pace.

Along with Brose, the major global door-systems suppliers include Delphi, Magna, Sommer Allibert, Visteon and ArvinMeritor.

Their evolution from door-hardware suppliers to module-makers is spurring them to bolster their design and project-management resources. It also requires getting in even earlier on vehicle development programs.

"One challenge for us is that the technology tends to change every product cycle, with low carryover, due to door and glass design changes," says Brose's Dunn.

For most suppliers, the door-module game means forming technology alliances or partnering, because none have the design and manufacturing expertise for producing everything in the extremely complex assembly, including airbag systems and control electronics. In the case of Brose, the company partners with Motorola and ALPS for its ECMs. "We always want a 20 percent share of the electronics," notes Kowal. "And we're investing heavily in electronics resources to grow that element of our capability."

Door modules are based on a carrier, the "chassis" of the module to which the door-system componentry is fitted. Kowal and Dunn explain that a materials battle is brewing in the industry, pitting steel carriers (long preferred by Brose and others) against thermoplastics (used by Delphi on its much hyped Superplug). "Our customers want us to help them reduce mass, integrate functions and cut costs," Dunn says. "So we're developing various materials solutions." Plastics is the best bet on cost, but some suppliers are looking at aluminum and even featherweight magnesium. Others, such as Lear Corp. and Sommer Allibert, are leaning towards trim-panel based carriers, according to ITB Group.

Suppliers and OEMs face two tricky issues as doors go modular--paint-match and fit-and-finish. TB Group reports that one possible solution is being examined in GM'S Blue Macaw plant in Brazil. There, Lear assembles the door on a separate line and reattaches it to the body near the end of the trim line. Another possible answer is plastic, molded-in-color door outers such as those used on DaimlerChrysler's tiny Smart car.

"The current trend in North America and Europe is toward increasing the complexity of the hardware module by adding more electronic functions, partial interior trim panels, headers, more structure and, in some cases, glass," reports ITB Group's O'Malley. But until paint-matching and the still-thorny issue of suppliers in UAW plants are resolved, modular doors will not dominate anytime soon.

Automotive Industry

Opening the Door to Modules - North American door-systems market - Brief Article

Automotive Industries, August, 2001 by Lindsay Brooke

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