Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Automotive Industry is mature and has well established multinational, power relationships and
technologies.
2. Technology and innovation is needed to compete in the intensely competitive environment.
3. A survey was conducted by Gordon Institute of Business School and Lund University in
Sweden in automotive component manufacturing industry to obtain information on level of
education for training in innovation, this was to enable firms to make effective choices to attain
resources for innovation.
4. National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers (NAACAM)
represents largest number of automotive component manufacturers with most employees in the
sector.
5. India and China according to the survey has a higher percentage of educated staff than South
Africa and so own design equipment i.e. original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
6. Survey also stated that when compared to India and China, south African manufacturers fared
worse on product innovation in products and services however, innovation levels in the three
countries are much closer together, and this can be attributed to new OEM model introduction.
7. The survey also compared training in these three countries and found out that firms in South
Africa depend more on international trainings and thus, depends on multinationals.
8. Government requirement of more competitiveness, sustainability and decreased dependency on
government incentives will need high level skills and local trainings which can only be attained
via greater education level like that followed in India and China.
1. Magna International Inc. is a global leading auto parts design and productions company made
$ 30 billion in 2012 and it virtually counts all major auto assemblers as its customers.
2. It focuses on areas where direct labour costs are low or areas where it can offer innovative
designs and processes.
3. Its competitors are
a. Dana Holding Corp.
b. Lear Corp.
c. Johnson Controls
d. Robert Bosch Corp.
e. BorgWarner Inc.
4. Markets trends like move to global platforms making the ability to supply important, growth of
non-traditional markets; China, India, Brazil etc, demand for smaller vehicles, government
regulations, fuel efficiency, cost reduction and pricing pressures.
5. Magna is divided into 3 geographical regions and each region is led by a separate GM who
know their local customers and markets.
6. Magna plants are non-unionized and take employee responsibilities in their own hands like
Magna Employee Charter provides job security, healthy workplace environment, competitive
wages and profit participation. Its business model is decentralized.
7. Magna believes that management is responsible for solving labour issues and its strategies are
word class manufacturing, Innovation and leadership development.
8. Magna also focuses on trade policy, duplication of regulations, exchange rate and training.
9. Its sales are business to business and is seeking to be a leading supplier to all major assemblers
and views Russia and India as new markets to gain market shares.
10. It has 17000 employees and half of these are international.
11. Linamar is a global manufacturer of precision metal parts competing with Magna International
and is given contract without price competition if product is unique to Linamar. It uses
continues innovation to remain competitive and its business focus is precision machining.
12. It has 2 major manufacturing divisions i.e. Powerline and Driveline Division and Industrial,
Commercial and Energy Division. Its strategy is to run efficient plants in clusters which are
autonomous in nature.
13. Employees are trained, and Linamar is non-unionized. Technical skills, leadership skills and
management skills. Business model is decentralized for each plant and separate facilities for
employee.
14. Its growth strategy includes diversification, globalization and green technologies in addition to
growing its auto parts business.
15. It has two R&D facilities Guelph and Detroit where all employees are encouraged to suggest
innovation each year. It is a B2B supplier providing to firms, parts.
16. Martinrea International is a global supplier of auto parts in 3 areas;
a. Metal stamping & forming
b. Fluid handling systems
c. Complex Aluminium parts
17. It provides one stop shopping service for assembler clients and its business strategy is buy or
build to gain competitive edge and follows the same decentralized management system as
followed by Magna and Linamar.
18. It focuses on innovation by empowering employees to improve processes and reduce costs and
it follows B2B marketing.
19. Its labour is a mix of unionized and non-unionized, but it has an employee charter same as
Magna. Martinrea looks for employees with strong work ethics, diligence and who want to
learn.
20. All 3 of these firms want a flat structure and focus on innovation with high quality and low cost
however, they differ in sizes i.e. Magna at $30 billion is 10 times that of the other two and they
differ in their geographic representations.