Automotive Technology
Automotive Technology
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Integrated car body specialist
thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions: An integrated business model with maximum expertise for body construction
thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions can look back on a 120-year history. And yet the bodywork specialists are constantly reinventing themselves. After all, the unprecedented change in the automotive industry is not leaving body construction untouched. As an integrated car body specialist that scores on the market with speed and the greatest know-how, the company considers itself perfectly positioned for the present and the future.
With around 2100 employees, thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions has built up an outstanding reputation among premium vehicle manufacturers over the years. More than 20 supplier awards won speak for themselves. It's not just new forms of drive and ambitious climate targets that pose major challenges for the car body specialists. Ever shorter development cycles, a continuing increase in model diversity and rising safety requirements are also placing demands on employees at nine locations worldwide. The car body specialist repositioned and realigned themselves at an early stage. The unique business model: The company offers both project business including plant engineering, toolmaking and prototype construction as well as series production of body components from a single source.
Extensive synergy effects between series production and plant engineering
"As an integrated car body specialist, we can act in a more entrepreneurial way, and be quicker and more flexible on the market than our competitors," confirms Falk Nüßle, CEO of thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions. By combining their own expertise in classic plant engineering with that from the series production of body components, the automotive professionals have secured a decisive competitive edge: "By combining the two areas, we can offer our customers customized and proven solutions from a single source for the entire body shop," says Nüßle.
Experience from series production flows into the project business
thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions covers the entire automotive product development process from the pre-development phase to volume production. "There is no comparable competitor in terms of breadth and depth – that's the big difference," explains Nüßle. The concrete advantage for customers: "In project business, we are able to incorporate our expertise and experience from the series production of body components, where we have to deliver the very highest quality and performance on a 24/7 basis. After all, we know very well where the key challenges lie.
Extensive synergy effects between series production and plant engineering
"As an integrated car body specialist, we can act in a more entrepreneurial way, and be quicker and more flexible on the market than our competitors," confirms Falk Nüßle, CEO of thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions. By combining their own expertise in classic plant engineering with that from the series production of body components, the automotive professionals have secured a decisive competitive edge: "By combining the two areas, we can offer our customers customized and proven solutions from a single source for the entire body shop," says Nüßle.
Experience from series production flows into the project business
thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions covers the entire automotive product development process from the pre-development phase to volume production. "There is no comparable competitor in terms of breadth and depth – that's the big difference," explains Nüßle. The concrete advantage for customers: "In project business, we are able to incorporate our expertise and experience from the series production of body components, where we have to deliver the very highest quality and performance on a 24/7 basis. After all, we know very well where the key challenges lie.
In series production, on the other hand, we can rely on our own project business, which can also introduce process improvements during production. This gives us synergy effects in both directions and the opportunity to advise our customers in a completely different way than our competitors."
Another example of 360° performance capability is the company's own showcase plant in Mühlacker. Here, Porsche Taycan body substructures are manufactured to customer order and delivered just-in-sequence to Zuffenhausen. thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions not only handles the joining of the individual parts, which are also almost entirely purchased by the body shop professionals. "We also helped completely develop the construction of the operating equipment for the press tools needed to produce the individual parts," Schunk reveals. "To this end, our Toolmaking and Prototyping departments worldwide supervised the construction of the dies and the press shops during the development of the components, and everything was completely coordinated. "We were able to achieve the required quality in record time by specifying exactly which processes and process steps must be used to produce these components."
Passion and excellence as differentiating factors
The body production of the Porsche Taycan is not the only project in the field of electric mobility. Today, thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions is already generating over 50 percent of its sales in the series production business with electrified vehicles. "We also have a strong presence in the field of electric mobility in plant engineering, of course," reveals Falk Nüßle. And not only with the classic providers such as for example Daimler, Audi, BMW or Porsche, Bentley or Lamborghini. Younger and completely new manufacturers such as Tesla, Fiska or Lucid also like to call on our range of expertise because, as you would expect, the customer in this case does not have the same level of experience in car body construction as the large, established automotive groups. It is this holistic claim, this comprehensive competence, with which thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions convinces its customers.
"Compared to the competition, we are not only extremely fast and flexible. Our extensive experience in both project business and series production ensures that what the customer gets is on time, on quality and on cost," summarizes Nüßle.