Page 1 - SCHERDELnews Edition 1/11 english

Dear reader,
In the course of globalization
SCHERDEL is continuing to follow
the strategy of setting up locations
in those areas which will be of
benefit to our customers. As you
will gather from some of the re-
ports in this edition, this activity is
taking place mainly in Asia and
Eastern Europe. Last year, thanks
to our expertise in the field of de-
velopment, the high quality of our
products and SCHERDELʼs relia-
bility as a supplier to the automo-
bile industry, we successfully over-
came the economic crisis of 2009
and participated in Germanyʼs
rapid upward trend as an industrial
location. Generally speaking, how-
ever, the German economyʼs
share in the world economy has
been decreasing for years and, to
an increasing extent, because of
the low cost of labour, production
facilities are being transferred to
Asia. Against this background,
however, the co-operation be-
tween OEMs and medium-sized
suppliers which has developed
over the past decades should not
be put at risk. Based on the reli-
able coordination of technological
expertise, SCHERDEL will make
every effort to continue optimizing
the value chain in the automotive
industry for the benefit of our cus-
tomers. I should like to thank all
our staff for their efforts here and
wish you health, happiness and
success in 2011.
Walter Bach
Group Managing Director 1
LOCATIONS - TECHNOLOGY & PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT -
NEWS AND INFORMATION
EDITION 1/2011 E
Factory in Mexico
a "first-tier supplier"
SCHERDEL de Mexico's latest product –
hinge springs for tailgates
O ne of SCHERDEL's aims is to set
up locations within easy reach of
its most important customers, in order
to be able to offer optimum service and
logistical advantages. That's why the
Group is making every endeavour to
promote its position as a global player
on an international basis. With this in
view, a production location was also
set up in Mexico in 2004. The factory is
situated in Leon, a modern industrial
town with approx. a million inhabitants.
Some of the best-known first-tier sup-
pliers to the automotive industry, in-
cluding companies such as Bosch,
TRW, Continental and Mahle, are locat-
ed in the immediate vicinity.
SCHERDEL de Mexico (abbreviation
SdM) started its production activities
with the manufacture of tension
springs, booster springs and compres-
sion springs. In a relatively short time it
succeeded in becoming the main sup-
plier to Bosch, Kaiser, FTE and Ake-
bono in the town of Aguascalientes and
TRW in Queretaro. This meant that
SdM was now the supplier to the "first-
tier suppliers" in the region. In the
meantime, as much as 25 per cent of
the total production output is exported.
The countries to which products are
supplied include the USA, India, South
Africa, Brazil, Poland and Germany.
The latest activity at SdM is the produc-
tion of hinge springs for tailgates. In or-
der to be able to manufacture them, the
existing bay first had to be extended. At
the German SCHERDEL factory in Er-
langen, for a total of seven months,
Mexican employees were given inten-
sive training including the necessary
qualification for their new production
tasks. In October last year the special
machines required for the manufacture
of hinge springs for tailgates arrived in
Leon from Germany. The first customer
orders have already been received: for
example, SdM will supply these springs
for the VW Jetta produced in Puebla,
as well as for the Passat built at the
VW factory in Chattanooga. The hinge
springs for tailgates are sent to the cus-
tomer once a week in special, return-
able plastic containers. Thanks to this
"milk run system", warehousing at their
own production location is kept to a
minimum for the customers. (dk)
REPORTS ON RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, MANUFACTURING, MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY AND THE PRACTICAL APPLICA-
TIONS OF ENGINEERING SPRINGS AND ON THE SYSTEMS, MACHINERY AND TOOLING DIVISIONS OF THE SCHERDELGROUP