Supply and Demand

North America

Agile Acquires Cimmetry Systems

Agile has announced the acquisition of Cimmetry Systems. By this acquisition, Agile shows their view of the importance of visual collaboration as a key component of a full PLM solution. They have committed to both incorporating Cimmetry’s technologies and knowledge base into Agile’s offerings, and to maintaining Cimmetry as an independent business operation. Cimmetry will continue to build and develop its supplier and partner relationships with a wide-ranging set of companies throughout the industry –companies that utilize the Cimmetry suite of technologies in their own offerings, including many companies that are direct competitors of Agile.

Agile has been a reseller of Cimmetry’s products for a number of years and expects Cimmetry’s growth to be further invigorated by the market presence, sales force and financial resources that Agile will provide, as well as further leveraging Cimmetry’s strong set of channel partners.

Gardner Denver Acquires XCEED

Gardner Denver has acquired XCEED Compressed Air Control Solutions, formerly of Honeywell Automation & Control Solutions. The acquisition is meant to strengthen Gardner Denver’s portfolio of products and services. Terms of the transaction were undisclosed.

The XCEED product is comprised of control systems to supervise multiple compressors. The product and its application technology are installed as permanent parts of a plant air system. The system was built to assist compressed air users, particularly industrial users with multiple compressors, in establishing and sustaining optimal system efficiency.

Ford Increases Efficiency of Norfolk Assembly Plant

The plant, which builds the Ford F-150 pickup, will begin construction of the new 30,000 sq.ft. facility later this year. It will house an Automatic Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS). Construction is scheduled to be completed by mid-2006. According to Ford, once the passenger cabin and truck bed have been painted, they move along a conveyor belt to the sequencing center where they will be stored for a short time in the new ASRS building. The units will be stored in one of 500 individual storage racks. They are then pulled from the racks and sent to the engine and chassis assembly line in a pre-determined sequence that was previously communicated to suppliers.

The ASRS building, to be built at the northwest corner of the plant site, will be 100 ft. tall or about 10 stories. The facility will have a capacity of about 500 truck cabins and beds. ASRS receives units as they exit the paint shop and stores them in multilevel racks. Conveyors move the components to the final assembly area in the order in which they are used in the assembly process. The new center is not expected to add any new jobs to the plant’s 2,600 employees.

ArvinMeritor to Supply Drum Brakes to Volvo Trucks North America

ArvinMeritor’s Commercial Vehicle Systems (CVS) business group has been awarded a three-year contract to supply its Meritor Q Plus cam brakes to Volvo Trucks North America Inc.

Meritor Q Plus brakes will continue to be standard equipment on all Volvo trucks in North America.

Standard and High-Performance Q Plus brakes for the Volvo contract will be provided through the company’s Manning, S.C., and Tilbury, Ont., Canada, facilities. Volvo Trucks North America assembles its Volvo VN and VHD trucks in the United States, at the ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 certified New River Valley Plant in Dublin, Virginia.

Edscha Takes Control of U.S. Joint Venture Premier Roof Systems

Edscha has taken control of Premier Roof Systems LLC, the U.S. joint venture with ASC Inc. of Southgate, Mich. The company will now operate under the name of Edscha Roof Systems, LLC.

At the end of 1999, ASC and Edscha had joined forces at the request of BMW to work on the roof system of the BMW Z4 Roadster. In August 2000, Premier Roof Systems was set up as a 50/50 joint venture and subsequently in 2001, a manufacturing facility was established in Greer near the BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Two and a half years after the BMW Z4 went into production, Edscha is now running the plant and the project on its own.

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Europe

Pininfarina and Webasto Restructure OASys

Pininfarina S.p.A. and Webasto A.G. have finalized the agreement announced last December to dissolve the 50-50 joint venture that became Open Air Systems GmbH (OASys).

Pininfarina has sold its last share to Webasto, with the value of the sale at 45 million euros plus an additional 22 million euros from income earned in 2005. OASys, under Webasto ownership, will now focus on the convertible top business, while Pininfarina will continue to engineer and manufacture vehicles using innovative roofing solutions.

In the short term, OASys will continue to be an exclusive supplier of convertible and open-air solutions to Pininfarina, while Pininfarina will continue to supply manufactured roofs to OASys.
 

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Asia

DENSO Develops New Alternator for F1

DENSO Corporation, parent company of Southfield, Mich.-based DENSO International America Inc., has developed a new alternator for Formula 1 (F1) racing. This alternator will be installed in the new “TF105” F1 racecar of the Panasonic Toyota Racing F1 Team this season. The alternator generates alternating currents at the stator coil when the rotor is turned by the engine.