Concentration of door activities in Hallstadt increases Brose Group’s system expertise and efficiency on the market

Hallstadt (June 19, 2007). The Brose location in Hallstadt near Bamberg is gaining increasingly in importance for the international corporate group. After merging the two large business divisions of window regulators and door systems into one organizational unit “Door Systems” at the beginning of the year, all the development and sales activities are also to be consolidated in Hallstadt by the middle of the year: Approx. 70 percent of Brose’s worldwide business is coordinated from Hallstadt. Brose produces door systems and window regulators for more than 40 automobile brands at more than 30 locations.

To create the capacities required for processing customer projects, it was necessary to build an additional building for testing and engineering. Completion is targeted for the end of July. In the course of these construction measures, traffic routes for vehicles at the premises will be optimized and additional social amenities and car parking lots created.

The company has invested more than 5 million euros in the extension of the building, in office equipment, in testing facilities and social amenities.

Headcount increase
 
“Merging the two business segments of window regulators and door systems will give us much more leverage, flexibility and efficiency,” said Executive Vice-President Kurt Sauernheimer; he is responsible for the worldwide door system business, which generated a turnover of approx. 1.64 billion euros in 2006.

Pooling activities was the logical response to the increasing demands of the market: ”By standardizing door components in product development and by concentrating all our activities at the location of Hallstadt, we can benefit from the resulting synergy which will subsequently increase the level of our products’ quality and functionality,” added Sauernheimer.

In the course of these restructuring measures, approx. 150 Coburg employees from the window regulator development, testing and sales departments will have begun work in Hallstadt by mid-2006. Subsequently, the headcount at this Upper Franconian central location will rise to over 1,100.
 
System expertise extended:
Plastic carriers for door systems “made in Hallstadt”

Moreover, the automotive supplier will continue to extend its expertise in the vehicle car and is poised to start in-house production of plastic module carriers for door systems. With this in mind, Brose recently set up an injection molding machine in Hallstadt. This new equipment has a clamping force of 1,650 tons allowing it to produce the large-surface plastic parts.

To get the injection molding equipment operational, it was necessary to expand the infrastructure: in addition to the necessary cooling systems, a crane was installed to handle the tools which can weigh anything up to 30 tons. Purchasing and setting up this new production technology entailed more than 3 million euros in total. The first door systems with plastic carriers produced in-house will go into series production in the coming year.

“We have evolved from being a window regulator producer to a system supplier; today we are responsible for the complete door development,” says Matthias Drewniok, head of the Hallstadt location.

“The decision to produce the plastic carriers for our door systems ourselves and to increase the in-company levels of manufacturing was a logical step in this system integration,” continues Drewniok. Locating product development, tool planning and production at one place enables short development times, optimal product design and cost-effective production.

Brose engineers in Hallstadt can test their product ideas or initial prototypes on the equipment directly and evaluate the results on site. At the same time, Brose is able to respond more flexibly to different customer requirements and to work constantly on further product optimizations.

Using plastic door systems is one way of keeping pace with the trend which is becoming increasingly important in the automotive industry: reducing weight while maintaining the same level of functionality. Brose door systems with plastic carriers meet these requirements. A high degree of component integration makes them lighter than conventional steel carrier modules, resulting in weight savings of up to 3 kilograms per car.

In addition to weight savings, better noise absorption and increased design possibilities, functional integration is primarily what makes using plastic for the door system carrier more and more interesting for the automakers.
 
Upper Franconian Brose locations benefit from worldwide growth

Concentrating all door system activities at the location of Hallstadt means that the company’s head office at Coburg gains the space it needs for extending the central development department and the seat system business division.

Having extended its product portfolio and acquired additional orders in Asia and North America, the Brose Group’s seat system business will grow at an above-average rate in the upcoming years. Subsequently 60 new jobs are to be created this year in Coburg alone in this business segment. A total of 75 job vacancies have to be filled in Coburg and 40 in Hallstadt.
 
In order to tap into additional market segments, the organizational unit “New Products” established in Coburg at the beginning of the year will push ahead with the development of products designed to supplement the company’s existing product portfolio.