ZF celebrates 20 years of passenger car axle assembly

ZF has been delivering Just-in-Time and Just-in-Sequence complete axle systems to automotive manufacturers' production lines for 20 years now. What started at the first passenger car axle assembly location in Duncan, USA with production-synchronised supply of front axles for the BMW Z3 Roadster, is now standard practice on every continent: at 15 plants in eight countries, ZF has already assembled approximately 27 million ready-to-install axle sets individually tuned to the respective vehicles.

“Twenty years ago, ZF ventured into unchartered business territory with the system supply of complete passenger car axle sets at the Duncan location in the USA", explains Dr. Peter Holdmann, who is responsible for the passenger car axle system business at ZF's Car Chassis Technology division. “Since this time, ZF has evolved in this segment to become a valued partner of the automotive industry on all continents.

The significance of the passenger car axle business for ZF today is revealed in the key performance indicators of the 15 global assembly locations: In the last year alone, we have achieved sales of almost euros 2.8 billion and rising with nearly four million complete front and rear axles.” Over 50 percent of these sales are being generated in the Asia-Pacific region and approximately 30 percent in America.

Just-in-Sequence supply
A total of almost 3 800 employees at passenger car axle assembly locations in the USA, Great Britain, Austria, South Africa, India, China, Thailand, and Australia are responsible for supplying production-synchronized, complete axle systems or corner module sets (half shafts), which are tailored to the specific requirements of the particular vehicle model.

Exactly 20 years ago, front axles were assembled Just-in-Time and Just-in-Sequence for the BMW Z3 Roadster at the first axle system production location in Duncan, USA. Just two years later, another location was opened in Tuscaloosa, USA for the assembly of complete front and rear axles for the Mercedes Benz M-Class. Today, ZF customers include the full spectrum of international automotive manufacturers: from Mercedes-Benz to BMW, FAW-VW, Audi, Ford, General Motors, GM Holden through to Land Rover and Jaguar. As a result, ZF has produced roughly 27 million passenger car axle systems since 1994.

In order to ensure Just-in-Time and Just-in-Sequence supply, the ZF axle plants are never further than 30 kilometres away from the customers' production locations and are always situated at strategic transport points. Therefore, it never takes longer than two to four hours between quantity-based call-off and delivery of the finished product to the automotive manufacturers' production lines.

A strong partnership with local suppliers is a requirement here. “Supplier management and global logistics expertise play a decisive role in the passenger car axle business,” Dr. Peter Holdmann explains. “The required parts and components are usually purchased locally or are supplied by other ZF locations worldwide”. Construction of a separate component manufacturing facility may also be worthwhile depending on volumes.