VISIBLY SUPERIOR

Fuyao is a global leader in the manufacture of automotive safety and high-technology glass for industry. Philip Yorke spoke to Norbert Geisinger, the company’s European managing director, about its latest research projects and customer support programmes and the strategy behind its growing success in Europe and Asia.

Industry Europe 211 he Fuyao Group is a joint venture corpora- such as the Oracle ERP IT system with its plier of the Year Award from , tion founded in Fuzhou, , in 1987 proven international manufacturing manage- for outstanding contribution to the manufactur- Tand was the first company in its field to ment models and business processes. ing of world-class vehicles, as well as winning be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange In addition, Fuyao is fully certified to ISO the Gold Prize for the best Supplier. in 1993. Today the company employs more 9002, QS 9000, VDA6.1, ISO14001 and than 14,000 people worldwide and is by any TS16949. As a mark of the exceptional stand- Extending value-added services standard a highly successful, global manufac- ards achieved in both manufacturing and cost- The Fuyao Group produces a wide portfolio turing company and one of the world’s top four efficient service, the company received the of products from laminated glass, tempered manufacturers of glass for the automobile and 2000 Gold World Excellence Award in 2007, glass and hollow glass to silver mirror glass manufacturing industries. Since its inception, for quality, cost and delivery from the US Ford and . However, the company also the company has adopted some of the world’s Motor Company. More recently in 2008 the offers a wide range of value-added services for most advanced management programmes, Group’s CEO, Steven Cho, received the Sup- its OEM and Tier 1 customers, as Mr Geisinger

212 Industry Europe Ayrox

To achieve our goals we have selected the company Ayrox as one of our our long term reliable technology providers. For some 20 years ago we bought the first soldering machines for our heatable backlite production from them. This technology is still in use in several of our production facilities.

In 2007 Ayrox helped us to get a major addition to our product range by supplying the first PVB wiring machine used to produce heatable windscreens for vehicles. Heatable windscreens are a value-added product in- stalled into top of range Chinese and European cars.

One of our latest challenges came with the automated installation technics at car assembly lines which requires windscreens to have silicone free edges. Here again Ayrox is our number 1 provider of silicone free vacuum rings used in lamination process of windscreens.

214 Industry Europe Industry Europe 215 Antaya

There has been a significant increase in the number of features that are available as part of the car glazing systems. Gone GKN Sinter Metals are the days when the only feature that could be found on a typical backlite was a defroster grid circuit. Now most vehicles The global automotive industry is more competitive and have complex antenna grids, anti-theft systems, integrated demanding than ever. lights, wipers, and cameras, with additional features to come. We have partnered with Antaya Technologies Corporation, an To meet these ambitious requirements we need strong American company with a subsidiary in China, to help us stay and trustworthy partners within the components industry. on the leading edge of the development of these features. Our main focus is therefore on a joint development. Antaya manufactures customized connections for us that fit individual applications to the most demanding global automo- More than 20 different, exclusively designed mirror- tive quality standards. In addition, Antaya is the world’s largest buttons made from GKN Sinter Metals powder metals supplier of lead free on-glass connections. With help from are the result of this innovative cooperation. Antaya, we are pleased to report that we are the only Chinese glass suppler that has fully validated lead free connectors as Both market – leading companies are committed to the a general drop in replacement for leaded parts. In addition to highest standards of quality and customer satisfaction. complying with many OEM and governmental requirements, the lead free initiative has immeasurable benefits for the health of our employees.

explained, “We add value to the products that clients for us include Jaguar Land Rover high-technology safety glass product known Toyota, Honda, Nissan, PSA, Volvo, Hyundai we import from China for our European cus- and Honda UK.” as ‘Switchable Glass’. This is the safety glass and Daimler. Fuyao’s advanced manufacturing tomers by adding profiles to the top and bot- Mr Geisinger added, “The competition in product of the future and will enable drivers to techniques are supported by low labour and tom of the windows as well as by providing a the automotive industry is very strong but we switch from clear glass to tinted glass at the overhead costs, which means that automo- variety of chemical applications. We also offer a have a number of key advantages. For exam- touch of a button.” biles manufactured in Asia can be more com- range of value-added services when it comes ple, most of our tooling is done in-house and Fuyao’s test facilities are among the most petitively priced for the European markets, as to logistics, which means that our customers is more competitively priced due to the low advanced in the world and the company well as for the emerging markets of the world, do not need to carry stocks of our products labour costs involved. Furthermore, because has invested more than €5 million recently thus helping to drive new sales. as we warehouse these on their behalf, so of the fact that car production lines for vehicles in inspection and testing instrumentation In addition, as living standards improve for that they can be delivered on a ‘just-in-time such as the Audi A4, VW Tiguan and BMW 3 equipment. These facilities represent the most people in the developing markets, motor cars basis. We also provide a design service that series are seeing strong growth and are pro- advanced techniques available for mechani- have come within the reach of an increas- offers new programmes and the creation of duced also in China, and because we are able cal testing and the testing of environmental ing number of households. Today Fuyao is drawings for new products from data prepared to provide everything on site, it is possible to resistance, optical performance and the ranked as number one in China and number in China.” bring a share of this business to Europe. We material analysis of vehicle safety glass. The for in the world. The company is committed “Here in Germany we act as a very also enjoy close contact with our OEM cus- company’s extensive laboratories are able to to becoming the global leader in safety glass important communication centre between tomers and currently are in a transition stage conduct tests in compliance with all interna- manufacturing and technology. To help it Europe and China, especially in terms of to offer further improved communications and tional standards including GB9656, ECER43, to achieve its objectives, Fuyao is planning new projects and in relation to providing consultancy services to our clients.” ANSI Z26.1 and J1SR3211. to build its own glass research institute and feasibility studies and acting as a conduit for “This increased focus on customer service an international scientific research centre to communications with our OEMs. In Europe is backed by a strong group performance Asian markets driving global sales develop both upstream and downstream today we manufacture automotive safety enabling us to offer a new range of dedicated In China, Fuyao has captured more than 50 industrial safety glass products. Today, spe- glass for VW-Audi, GM, BMW, Daimler and services and special project teams allocated per cent of the domestic OEM market and has cialised high-technology glass manufactured Volvo as well as for second-tier suppliers to our customers. At Fuyao, our various R&D been approved as a qualified, key supplier to by Fuyao includes self-cleaning, titanium such as those who produce sunroofs for departments are also working to become eight of the world’s leading automotive manu- silver coating, silicane coating and low-e cars and recreation vehicles. Other major the first to launch an entirely a new type of facturers: GM, Audi, Bentley, VW, GM, Ford, coated safety glass products. n

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