Automotive supplier day held in Eger
The Heves County Chamber of Industry and Commerce held an automotive supplier day on March 7 with the aim to bring closer to each other the automotive manufacturers of the region and their prospective Hungarian partners.
There are several automotive companies operating in the region, such as the two subsidiaries of ZF, transmission systems manufacturer ZF Hungária Kft. and steering gears manufacturer ZF Lenksysteme Hungária Kft., owned conjointly by ZF and the Bosch group.
Eger-based Aventics Hungary (ex-Rexroth Pneumatika) manufactures pneumatic systems for commercial vehicles, while Modine Hungária, having locations both in Mezőkövesd and Gyöngyös, is engaged in the production of supplementary cooling systems. The Hungarian National Trading House also attended the event.
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| Factory visit at ZF Hungária |
Over 160 companies registered at the supplier day, which was run according to a busy schedule as the representatives of the participating companies wanted to meet the integrators of the five automotive giants as well. In the morning the CEOs and purchasing directors of the five companies held short presentations and outlined the fundamental requirements they have for suppliers.
They all emphasised that as a result of generally strict quality norms and tight deadlines in the automotive industry, the requirements concerning suppliers are high as well. An ISO 9001 certificate is a minimum, but an ISO/TS 16949 automotive certificate is practically crucial for making businesses in this branch.
Besides, future suppliers have to prove that they are continuously capable of providing the same quality and production volume and keeping deadlines. This is also the interest of the suppliers as errors and delays could have dire consequences in the automotive industry. Customers also require their key suppliers to actively contribute to product development in order to make processes more effective and economical.
However, customers do not only have requirements, but they also contribute to helping their suppliers with their own tools: they offer development programmes, share their experiences and methods in process organisation, quality assessment and organisational development and provide access to their parents' global purchasing network.
The detailed requirements are available on the website of each company. Besides the requirements, these guides also discuss the steps of quality assessment and the entering process.
In the second part of the event, ten-minute "speed-meetings" were held in a special conference room set up for the occasion. Over 500 short meetings were conducted during the event with the purpose of getting the company representatives acquainted with one another. The event was useful for expanding and updating the database but businesses are obviously not made in ten minutes.
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| The speed-meetings lasted for 10 minutes |
The proportion of Hungarian suppliers at Aventics Hungary is 30 percent but the company has plans to further increase it. The pneumatics systems manufacturer, a supplier in the commercial vehicle branch, is looking for producers of aluminium casts and milled products capable of the flexible programming of their own production as the company's range consists of several products, usually manufactured in smaller volumes.
The proportion of Hungarian-made components at oil, fuel and exhaust gas cooler systems manufacturer Modine Hungára is currently 20 percent. The company is open to increasing this ratio and is looking for producers of stainless steel tubes and high-quality foundries.
The proportion of Hungarian suppliers at ZF Lenksysteme Hungária Kft. is currently 7 percent. The company's aim is to increase it to 20 percent by 2017. ZF Lenksysteme is currently building a new production hall near Maklár, Hungary, within the scope of a greenfield project, dedicated to the production of power-assisted steering systems. The increase in production also creates new opportunities for the company's suppliers.
As is was pointed out at the event, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce is helping enterprises join the supplier network of automotive companies with R&D programmes and business counselling activities. The municipality of Eger will help suppliers relocate their production to the close vicinity of their customers by expanding the area of the South Eger Industrial Park by 20 hectares.
