Visibly superior Fuyao

VISIBLY SUPERIOR

Fuyao is a global leader in the manufacture of automotive safety glass 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.

The Fuyao Group is a joint venture corporation founded in Fuzhou, China, in 1987 and was the first company in its field to be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1993. Today the company employs more than 14,000 people worldwide and is by any standard a highly successful, global manufacturing company and one of the world’s top four manufacturers of glass for the automobile and manufacturing industries. Since its inception, the company has adopted some of the world’s most advanced management programmes, such as the Oracle ERP IT system with its proven international manufacturing management models and business processes.

In addition, Fuyao is fully certified to ISO 9002, QS 9000, VDA6.1, ISO14001 and TS16949. As a mark of the exceptional standards achieved in both manufacturing and costefficient service, the company received the 2000 Gold World Excellence Award in 2007, for quality, cost and delivery from the US Ford Motor Company. More recently in 2008 the Group’s CEO, Steven Cho, received the Supplier of the Year Award from General Motors, for outstanding contribution to the manufacturing of world-class vehicles, as well as winning the Gold Prize for the best Supplier.

Extending value-added services

The Fuyao Group produces a wide portfolio of products from laminated glass, tempered glass and hollow glass to silver mirror glass and float glass. However, the company also offers a wide range of value-added services for its OEM and Tier 1 customers, as Mr Geisinger

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Antaya Technologies

Innovative glass connections

The leading global supplier of automotive on-glass attachments for power and signal applications. Over twenty years providing custom high quality components for demanding automotive glass applications for evey major OEM.

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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 installed 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.

explained, “We add value to the products that we import from China for our European customers by adding profiles to the top and bottom of the windows as well as by providing a variety of chemical applications. We also offer a range of value-added services when it comes to logistics, which means that our customers do not need to carry stocks of our products as we warehouse these on their behalf, so that they can be delivered on a ‘just-in-time basis. We also provide a design service that offers new programmes and the creation of drawings for new products from data prepared in China.”

“Here in Germany we act as a very important communication centre between Europe and China, especially in terms of new projects and in relation to providing feasibility studies and acting as a conduit for communications with our OEMs. In Europe today we manufacture automotive safety glass for VW-Audi, GM, BMW, Daimler and Volvo as well as for second-tier suppliers such as those who produce sunroofs for cars and recreation vehicles. Other major clients for us include Jaguar Land Rover and Honda UK.”

Mr Geisinger added, “The competition in the automotive industry is very strong but we have a number of key advantages. For example, most of our tooling is done in-house and is more competitively priced due to the low labour costs involved. Furthermore, because of the fact that car production lines for vehicles such as the Audi A4, VW Tiguan and BMW 3 series are seeing strong growth and are produced also in China, and because we are able to provide everything on site, it is possible to bring a share of this business to Europe. We also enjoy close contact with our OEM customers and currently are in a transition stage to offer further improved communications and consultancy services to our clients.”

“This increased focus on customer service is backed by a strong group performance enabling us to offer a new range of dedicated services and special project teams allocated to our customers. At Fuyao, our various R&D departments are also working to become the first to launch an entirely a new type of high-technology safety glass product known as ‘Switchable Glass’. This is the safety glass product of the future and will enable drivers to switch from clear glass to tinted glass at the touch of a button.”

Fuyao’s test facilities are among the most advanced in the world and the company has invested more than €5 million recently in inspection and testing instrumentation equipment. These facilities represent the most advanced techniques available for mechanical testing and the testing of environmental resistance, optical performance and the material analysis of vehicle safety glass. The company’s extensive laboratories are able to conduct tests in compliance with all international standards including GB9656, ECER43, ANSI Z26.1 and J1SR3211.

Asian markets driving global sales

In China, Fuyao has captured more than 50 per cent of the domestic OEM market and has been approved as a qualified, key supplier to eight of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers: GM, Audi, Bentley, VW, GM, Ford,

Antaya

There has been a significant increase in the number of features that are available as part of the car glazing systems. Gone are the days when the only feature that could be found on a typical backlite was a defroster grid circuit. Now most vehicles have complex antenna grids, anti-theft systems, integrated lights, wipers, and cameras, with additional features to come. We have partnered with Antaya Technologies Corporation, an American company with a subsidiary in China, to help us stay on the leading edge of the development of these features. Antaya manufactures customized connections for us that fit individual applications to the most demanding global automotive quality standards. In addition, Antaya is the world’s largest supplier of lead free on-glass connections. With help from Antaya, we are pleased to report that we are the only Chinese glass suppler that has fully validated lead free connectors as a general drop in replacement for leaded parts. In addition to complying with many OEM and governmental requirements, the lead free initiative has immeasurable benefits for the health of our employees.

GKN Sinter Metals

The global automotive industry is more competitive and demanding than ever.

To meet these ambitious requirements we need strong and trustworthy partners within the components industry. Our main focus is therefore on a joint development.

More than 20 different, exclusively designed mirrorbuttons made from GKN Sinter Metals powder metals are the result of this innovative cooperation.

Both market – leading companies are committed to the highest standards of quality and customer satisfaction.

Toyota, Honda, Nissan, PSA, Volvo, Hyundai and Daimler. Fuyao’s advanced manufacturing techniques are supported by low labour and overhead costs, which means that automobiles manufactured in Asia can be more competitively priced for the European markets, as well as for the emerging markets of the world, thus helping to drive new sales.

In addition, as living standards improve for people in the developing markets, motor cars have come within the reach of an increasing number of households. Today Fuyao is ranked as number one in China and number for in the world. The company is committed to becoming the global leader in safety glass manufacturing and technology. To help it to achieve its objectives, Fuyao is planning to build its own glass research institute and an international scientific research centre to develop both upstream and downstream industrial safety glass products. Today, specialised high-technology glass manufactured by Fuyao includes self-cleaning, titanium silver coating, silicane coating and low-e coated safety glass products. n