German Saarland Minister of Economic Affairs visits Brose Lounge at the IAA

Saarland's Minister of Economic Affairs Dr. Joachim Rippel along with other members of the ministry, GW Saar and Automotive Cluster Saarland visited the lounge of the Brose Group at the 63rd International Motor Show in Frankfurt on September 18, 2009.

While touring the booth, Executive Vice President Kurt Sauernheimer (door systems) and Joachim Hoff (General Manager Saarwellingen) informed the politician about the company's expanded range of products and latest development ideas.

The visitors appeared to be particularly interested in Brose designs with a high benefit for end customers.

The Minister of Economic Affairs Dr. Joachim Rippel found the new manual door check Variostop®, which Brose has developed to series production stage, to be "simply brilliant", whereas he judged the multi-step door check in his own official car to be less practical "because of the great force with which the vehicle door clicks into the next position."

He also showed great interest in the development of the door systems business segment and the Brose plant in Saarwellingen, which supplies the Ford facilities in Saarlouis. In collaboration since 2003 with sister plants in Hallstadt and Ghent/Belgium, this plant currently manufactures door systems for the Ford Focus, C-Max and Kuga.

From here, Brose uses the just-in-sequence supply process to deliver the products to the Ford plant about two kilometers away. It takes just 60 minutes from the time the company receives the order for the door systems to be supplied to the OEM's assembly lines. This is the shortest lead time for JIS manufacturing and delivery within the Brose Group.