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Auto part JV aims higher in China

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-20 17:04

Sven Kunath is general manager of Shenyang Jinbei Johnson Controls Automotive Interiors Co Ltd (SJJ). He worked for the Lear Corporation from 1996 to 1999. In 1999, he joined Johnson as general manager of engineering and was located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Then he worked as the chief engineer of seating development in Italy in 2002. In 2003, he took the position of director CI interior BU JC Europe. He came to Shanghai to be in charge of the company's Asia business in 2005. In 2006, he became the general manager of SJJ. Sven has an MBA from ISM Dortmund and a master's degree from Technical University Darmstadt in mechanical engineering.

Shenyang Jinbei Johnson Controls Automotive Interiors Co Ltd (SJJ) is a Sino-American joint venture co-invested by Jinbei Automotive Co Ltd and Johnson Controls Inc (JCI) in 2000. The company employs about 800 employees and mainly supplies auto seating (for Brilliance Jinbei's Minibus Hiace, GRACE MPV and M 1 Series), door panel and instrument panel (for BMW 3 and 5 Series), and truck seating (for JINBEI truck). The company's sales reached 910 million yuan at the end of 2007.

Sven Kunath, general manager for SJJ is an expert of seating design as he has worked in the field for more than 10 years. He was an honorable torchbearer for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Recently, he spoke with China Daily reporter Liu Ce about the manufacturing, environmental protection and social contribution of SJJ.

Q: I know that you worked in Shanghai before you came here. Why did you choose to come to Shenyang?

A: I came to Shenyang in October 2006, where I took the position of general manager. Before, I was located in Shanghai, which played a regional role for Asia. One of the main reasons for my coming here is I'm a German and we have some business with BMW. They are one of our key customers here besides Brilliance and Jinbei. The development of BMW is very positive, so we want to put more focus on them. Then I came here to develop the business and private relationship with BMW. Actually, we did well.

Q: Does this mean that SJJ mainly focuses on the local market rather than the national and international ones?

A: Johnson is an international company. It is pretty big in China with 13,000 people at the moment, and we have become the country's biggest supplier. To develop our supplier in the north, we use more local sources, as the long distance can get expensive. Step by step we are developing more local suppliers.

Q: So who is SJJ's biggest competitor here?

A: So far I think the local companies' relevancy is small because we are an international enterprise. There are other groups who are very successful like Toyota. But they have their own suppliers. They cooperate like a great family. We have some business with them but it's just small parts.

Q: A good seat must be both comfortable and safe. How do you create a product with this balance?

A: Johnson is not the average seating manufacturer – seating is our biggest business today. For a lot of our OEMs, there are global, European as well as Chinese standards and regulations to make sure the seating is safe enough.

For comfort, you can't compare seats in your living room with seats in your car. But we still focus on both safety and comfort. We have a lot of testing equipment to make sure our products are reliable. Also, we bought another testing machine for 40 million yuan last year that is the best in the world. You can't find it in Europe or America. It can help us to judge whether the seat is too hard or soft and the feelings you have, so it's very helpful.

Another thing is that Chinese customers have different feelings from Europeans. For BMW, their customers often employ a driver and they like to sit in the second row. And they like a seat that's a little softer with more space. So BMW promotes cars that you can only buy here rather than in Europe.

Q: Nowadays, environmental protection is becoming more and more popular in China and throughout the world. It draws much attention. Does SJJ take any measures to protect the environment?

A: A more comfortable, safe and sustainable world is our vision. And we consider sustainability a top priority. Johnson makes many efforts to protect the environment. We have power solutions. Also, we put some focus on efficiency control. And all the local OEMs are on the same level as BMW in environmental protection.

We have projects working to control emissions from the facility. And we set four stations to measure the emissions every day. Then we send 35 samples to Shanghai, and they take a special test of the chemicals samples to find whether they meet the global and national standards. Also, we use newer facilities to meet the global emission standard.