Globalization from Visteon’s POV

Jim Sistek is in the middle of his presentation on Global Product Development at Visteon, a global automotive supplier which was a spin-off of Ford Components in 2000. Their product portfolio consists of climate controls, interiors and electronics.

 

Globalization is taking hold and changes the thinking of manufacturers. This is really not a new concept to the majority of attendees in the room. The fact is, our customer’s customers expect them to be global.

Brazil, India, Russia and China are the emerging nations identified by Visteon and the automotive industry.  Like some of us who are hyper-connected, Visteon recognizes the hyper-competition in these countries. Why are these emerging markets so important for Visteon? Opportunity. In India, only 7 out of every 1000 people own a car. And the real game changer is the low cost car.

We saw two examples:

 

Chery A1
MRSP: $6250-7250 US

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tata Nano
From India
price tag $3000.

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder when these vehicles will flood the US markets?

Jim goes on to make a point about the drive for personalization – uniqueness in the countries – that people want what they want, when they want it. In order for Visteon to be a player in these markets, they need to get at least 50% cost reduction out of their products without the reduction in IT infrastructure to compete. And they have used Siemens PLM Software to capitalize on this opportunity.

From concept to “they’re out there”, Visteon strategy was to implement Teamcenter as a single global system in approximately two years.

• 70,000 Parts


• 700,000 Drawings


• Process 2,000 changes/month


• 6 months front end development


• 6 months to deploy


• 12 months of enhancements

“I am pleased to say we no longer use spreadsheets!”