Suppliers, R&D Shops Drive Auto Industry's Geography (cover) Michigan Takes Nothing For Granted Design Collaboration Drives Site Choices New Facility Requirements Take Shape Apparent Edge for Michigan GM: In Step with Site Trends Design Center Gets New Lease on Life Southern Sites Set to Expand Honda Site 'More than a Factory' Toyota Plans Major Capacity Gains Hoosier State Touts Major Projects Suppliers Weigh in With Expansions UK Automakers Pond On Non-Euro Status Request Information |
Design Collaboration So-called "co-opetition" has also driven tier one suppliers to the Detroit area, according to Dan Hunter, manager of Oakland County (Mich.) Planning and Economic Development. Often, design collaboration starts with a number of competing vendors working on sub-assemblies. The auto maker narrows the field as designs take shape. The vendor who can hop over to the auto maker's site to work things out in person has an advantage over those further away. "Auto makers are doing design and prototyping with multiple vendors working against each other," says Hunter.
At the same time, Hunter argues, auto makers are trying to shorten the cycle time from design to build. It has already dropped from five years to two-and-a-half, and some companies are pushing to reduce it even more radically, perhaps to as little as 18 months. "They want to read the pulse of the market and produce," says Hunter. A close concentration of design, engineering and assembly is a critical factor in meeting these goals.
360 are in Michigan, with automotive a huge portion of those. We're building on our traditional strengths." ---Jennifer Kopp, Michigan Economic Development Corp. Over the past couple of years, a substantial number of companies have moved or opened R&D facilities in Michigan. Oakland County Planning & Economic Development counts about 22 new investments in the area over the last 18 months. The area is home to such key auto centers as Auburn Hills, Troy, Novi, Southfield and Farmington Hills; the new investments are worth about a half-billion (U.S.) dollars. Among the companies opening or expanding in the area are Robert Bosch Corp., Motorola, Husky Molding, Magna Global Seating and Altair Engineering. Another source of expansion activity in the area comes from an influx of West Coast electronics firms setting up local facilities to serve the auto industry. Hunter says about a half-dozen such companies have opened facilities recently to provide IT support to auto makers. Real estate brokerage Signature Associates--Oncor International concurs with the supplier relocation phenomenon. In recent deals reported by the brokerage just in Auburn Hills, Borg Warner purchased 28 acres (11 ha.) in the Pinnacle Corporate Center in Auburn Hills to start a 186,000-sq.- ft. (17,280-sq.-m.) technical center; Autoliv is expanding its research and development facility by 100,000 sq. ft. (9,300 sq. m.); Dow Automotive has just leased 82,000 sq. ft. (7,600 sq. m.) at Pinnacle for an additional research facility; Jabil Circuit is developing a 192,000-sq.-ft. (17,800-sq.-m.) office/ production facility on 32 acres (13 ha.) at Pinnacle. Additionally, Venture, Visteon and Lear all have leased R&D centers in the 40,000- to 70,000-sq.-ft. (3,700- to 6,500-sq.-m.) range in Sterling Heights, Troy and Madison, respectively. Livernois emphasizes that Michigan offers a good quality of life to employees, another favorable aspect to locating in the state. "Detroit gets a bad rap, but Michigan is a really nice place to live," he says. "It's a pretty well-run state." Don Kegley, president of builder Cunningham-Limp Co. in Farmington Hills, has been putting up lots of automotive build-to-suit facilities in Oakland County lately. From his point of view, Auburn Hills has seen the most growth in the Detroit area recently. As you go northwest from Detroit on I-75, a densely developed automotive area, Auburn Hills is the first town past Troy with land available zoned for industrial or research use. "The city officials there are very fair," says Kegley. "They've offered tax incentives when others haven't. They had the vision that set the standards for what we see today in terms of zoning and infrastructure."
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