Automotive industry products

Between 2007 and 2009, automotive industry production in North America and Europe experienced the steepest declines in history. 

Phenohc resins are produced by the condensation of phenol or a substituted phenol, such as cresol, with formaldehyde. These low cost resins have been produced commercially for more than 100 years and in the 1990s are produced by more than 40 companies in the United States. They are employed as adhesives in the plywood industry and in numerous under-the-hood appHcations in the automotive industry. Because of the cycHc nature of the automotive and home building industry, the consumption of phenol for the production of phenohc resins is subject to cycHc swings greater than that of the economy as a whole. 

Ball and roUer bearings represent the largest business segment with worldwide production estimated at 14 biUion in 1988 (1). U.S. production, forecast for 3.6 biUion in 1991, has fallen 5% aimuaHy for several years (2). This decrease is attributed largely to the slump in the automotive industry which represents 31% of the market for rolling-element bearings (3). 

Sodium benzoate is also finding increasing appHcation as a corrosion inhibitor. It is incorporated into paper wrapping materials for the prevention of mst or corrosion in the production of such diverse items as razor blades, engine parts, bearings, etc. It is also used in the automotive industry as a corrosion inhibitor in engine cooling systems (at 1.5%), mainly in Europe and Japan. Unlike in its appHcation as a preservative where free benzoic acid is required to provide antimicrobial action, it appears to be the benzoate ion that provides the corrosion protection. 

U.S. consumption of carbon black in 1988 by various market sectors is shown in Table 6. About 90% of total consumption is in the mbber industry and 69% for tires. About 10% is consumed for other automotive products and 11% for mbber products unrelated to the automotive industry. The automotive industry accounts for 79% of consumption. Pigment appHcations account for about 10% of consumption, most of this for plastics and printing inks. Western Europe consumes 74% in tires and other automotive products and almost 20% in other industrial mbber products. Pigment appHcations in Western Europe and Japan are 5—6% of consumption. 

Compounds based on S—EB—S usually contain polypropylene, which improves solvent resistance and processibiUty and raises upper service temperatures. Compounds intended for use in the automotive industry are able to survive 1000 hours air exposure at temperatures of 125°C with only minor changes in properties (54). Very soft compounds have been developed to replace foam mbber for interior trim parts. In this and similar appHcations, these soft compounds are usually insert molded over polypropylene or metal and then coated with flexible polyurethane paint (55). Other automotive appHcations include products intended for sound deadening, flexible air ducts, and gear shifter boots, as weU as improving the properties of sheet mol ding compounds. 

The automotive sector s quality assurance standard QS 9000 (1998) suggests a concurrent high level model, as opposed to the sequential model from BS 7000 (1997). This is shown in Figure 5.7. The automotive industry in particular has embraced the use of concurrent engineering models for product development, and this is reflected in the standards which facilitate their quality assurance programmes. A concurrent industrial model from the automotive sector will be discussed later. 

Before setting about the task of developing such a model, the product development process requires definition along with an indication of its key stages, this is so the appropriate tools and techniques can be applied (Booker et al., 1997). In the approach presented here in Figure 5.11, the product development phases are activities generally defined in the automotive industry (Clark and Fujimoto, 1991). QFD Phase 1 is used to understand and quantify the importance of customer needs and requirements, and to support the definition of product and process requirements. The FMEA process is used to explore any potential failure modes, their likely Occurrence, Severity and Detectability. DFA/DFM techniques are used to minimize part count, facilitate ease of assembly and project component manufacturing and assembly costs, and are primarily aimed at cost reduction. 

Most ISO 9000 registered organizations claim to provide quality products and services, so why should there be so many dissatisfied customers when there are over 270,000 organizations in the world certified to ISO 9001, 9002, or 9003 One of the principal requirements in the standard is for the supplier to establish a quality system as a means of ensuring that product or service meet specified requirements. If an organization s products or services do not meet specified requirements then clearly the system has failed, but the failure is no fault of the standard - it is a fault of the way the standard has been applied and interpreted both by the organizations themselves and by the auditors who determine conformity. If the specified requirements are less than those of the customers, it is inevitable that products will bring dissatisfaction. This realization has, in the case of the automotive industry, led to two distinct needs ... 

The requirements of the automotive industry are more demanding than some other industries. Automotive products have to be safe, reliable, and maintainable, protect the occupants, and have minimal impact on the environment in their manufacture, use, and disposal. The automotive sector is a very competitive market and as a consequence costs have to be optimized. There is little margin for excessive variation, as variation causes waste and waste costs money and time. Therefore several methods have evolved to reduce variation. Among them are SPC, FMEA, MSA, and many other techniques The automotive industry believes that the more their suppliers adopt such variation reduction techniques the more likely it will be that the resultant product will be brought to the market more quickly and its production process be more efficient. 

As stated in Chapter 1, ISO/TS 16949 harmonizes the quality system requirements of the automotive industry in the USA, Germany, France, and Italy. It does not contain all automotive quality system requirements. All participating organizations have customer-specific requirements in addition, which may be issued separately or included in individual contracts for the supply of products and services. 

Experience in the automotive industry is obviously open to interpretation. This does not mean that only auditors who have worked in CM, Ford, BMW, etc. will be eligible. Auditors with Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers to the QEMs will also be eligible as will those who have worked for industries that produce products or materials used by the automotive industry. Therefore if an auditor has worked in the steel industry, electronics industry, or other manufacturing industry, such experience could be acceptable. During... 

The standard requires that goals and plans cover short-term and longer term and be based on analysis of competitive products and on benchmarking inside and outside the automotive industry and the supplier s commodity. 

Product realization in the automotive industry is either called advanced product quality planning (APQP) or project management. In terms of their objectives there is no difference. In terms of the mechanics there may be some differences, depending on the methodologies employed by the organization. 

A problem that may face many suppliers to the automotive industry is that of having multiple customers that are competitors, thus creating a need to preserve confidentiality. Customers are naturally concerned that their information or product does not reach their competitors. 

The desire to replace cadmium is generally attributed to its toxicity, both in terms of process pollution and product corrosion, and several alternatives are feasible thicker zinc, tin-zinc alloy or tin-nickel alloy depending upon the precise application " . The demise of decorative nickel-chrome systems in the automotive industries of the world is partly due to cost and partly to market image, and not to technical performance where major improvements took place in the period 1960-1975 through the establishment of duplex nickel under-layers and micro discontinuous chromium top-layers. In the 1980s the trend has been towards black finishes produced generally by powder-applied epoxy polymers. 

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