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| Workers assemble parts at the second factory opened by Beijing Mobis. Parent company,Hyundai Mobis, the country's largest auto parts maker, has production facilities in eight countries. Total ignition module production topped 100 million in 2013. / Courtesy of Hyundai Mobis |
By Park Jin-hai
Hyundai Mobis, Korea's largest auto parts maker, has provided a full weight behind Hyundai Motor Group's ascent overseas.
It has developed world's top quality modules to provide them to Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors.
"We have provided the modules that have been inspected through the local quality control system to Hyundai Motor's overseas markets. By delivering after-sales products in time, we also play the import role of guaranteeing Hyundai cars' overall quality," said a company spokesman.
It has constantly expanded the supply of chassis modules to Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors since 1999 when it started supplying them for certain passenger car lines.
Now it develops and manufactures three different modules ― chassis, front-end and cockpit modules ― and after-sales products.
By 2013 the company produced 100 million modules globally.
It has added manufacturing facilities in Europe and the United States as well, synchronized with the global expansion of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors.
With its first overseas production plant in Jiangsu, China, built in 2002, it produces 130,000 chassis and cockpit modules a year. Recently the company has added another factory nearby whose annual production capacity stands at 300,000 modules.
Beijing Mobis that has 300,000 annual production capacity also has established its second factory, doubling the current capacity.
Its Indian factory, established in 2007, has expanded its production lines to rollout 600,000 modules a year.
In all, it has factories in eight countries including the United States, Russia, Turkey and Brazil.
From 2006, the company has been supplying chassis modules for Chrysler.
"The essence of our competitiveness lies in the Just-In-Sequence (JIS) production system. By developing and operating the system over the past 15 years, we produce a large number of modules in such a short time," the spokesman added.
The JIS system produces the modules in time with the progress of a complete car schedule. Mobis has extended the just-in-sequence process to foreign markets where all of its production bases are located.
Hyundai Mobis third-quarter sales recorded at 8.5 trillion won, up 3.8 percent year-on-year, while its operating profit grew 5.5 percent to 723.4 billion won.
