Delphi headquarters moonlights as global hub

Automotive Industries, Feb, 1998 by Gerry Kobe

A special facility within Delphi's now Troy, Mich., headquarters gives customers one-stop shopping for the technical, engineering and marketing expertise of all Its divisions.

When the operator answers the phone at Delphi's new headquarters, the message is loud and clear: "Thank you for calling Delphi World Headquarters and Customer Center." To the uninitiated ear, the importance of the words "Customer Center" might easily be overlooked. But for the over 20 automakers worldwide that buy Delphi components, the Customer Center is their new lifeline to the world's largest automotive supplier.

The Customer Center is a 17,000 square-foot facility within Delphi's shimmering six-story, 265,000 square foot headquarters building. It often hosts as many as 100 visitors daily. Marketing director Bill Lafontaine admits that it may sound surprising, but one of the center's key roles is to reintroduce customers to the breadth of the company's capabilities.

"When you have 165 product lines, exposing customers to our entire line can only be done at a center like this," he says.

However, many non-GM customers are reluctant to comment on the record about the center, still aware that Delphi is tied to GM

"I've been there and it's great," a Ford engineer tells AI, "but it goes head-to-head with Visteon so I need to be careful." An equally gun-shy Chrysler customer notes that, "It serves as a strong educational tool for Delphi to teach its customers about its products and technology."

Typically, a customer's initial visit begins with a video overview of the company, shown in the Customer Center theater From there, a multimedia-style walking tour of Delphi's divisional product offerings includes everything from big screen projections show casing its chassis products, to a fiber-optic-filled floor that demonstrates air-flow patterns for its thermal systems.

"One of the key advantages of our display area is flexibility," claim Don Runkle, general manager Delphi-E, the energy and engine management systems group. "If we know a specific customer is coming in, we can scramble all the displays in here within hours and set them back up with that customer's products, or products we know they are interested in. We can even bring in one of their vehicles."

After a product review, the customer and the director host adjourn to a conference area to discuss Delphi's involvement, including potential emerging technologies and benchmarking.

"We might even take them into the development area," Runkle adds, "and actually do some demonstrations for the customer while they are here."

Lafontaine says the facility does confidential hardware development and prototypes. If a company provides a vehicle, it is placed in one of the 12 secured bays in the engineering development area and co-developed with the customer

For automakers, Delphi World Headquarters provides a much-needed hub for global component sales and development to take place. But as company president J.T Battenberg says, the Customer Center constitutes the "heart and soul" of the building.