In just one step, SAPA’s One-Shot Engine Beauty Cover increases productivity by 300%, decreasing costs and scrap pieces in accordance with Horizon 2020
Today I would like to tell you about one of the most revolutionary applications of our One-Shot Method. SAPA’s patented fastest method in the world for the manufacturing of car components.
Don’t believe us?
Keep reading, and I’m sure you will agree with me..
Specifically, I want to tell you about our Engine Beauty Cover, industrialized on the Alfa Romeo Giulia.
In order to tell you about this innovative patented product, I would like to take you with me on a journey to Oakland, California, where I had a chance to watch an NBA game a few years ago, which completely changed the way I look at Basketball.
If you’re wondering what has basketball got to do with the Engine Beauty Cover, I promise we will get there soon. Just follow me, because you won’t regret it.
As you may know, basketball is a fast paced game, especially in the United States, where it is centered on fast-breaks and quick offensive strategies, trying to get the ball into the hoop as quickly as possible.
There are a wide varieties of ways to do so.
Scoring will mostly give you two points, but three if you shoot from behind the three point arc.
Now, imagine what it means to score a lot from the distance.
It means you’re unpredictable and can score at any given time.
Plus, it is hard to defend against it.
Also, everything becomes quicker, so you score much faster.
This was all an exception until he came around; the player you see in the picture.
Stephen Curry, number 30, came and changed the game.
He was doing much more than that. He managed to score in spite of his lack of strong physical presence.
You might be wondering how it’s possible: scoring a three pointer after another, getting rid of all the steps that used to get you to the hoop.
Stephen Curry can shoot from eight meters, and sometimes almost from half court. It’s a gamechanger.
I’m assuming you now want to know what this all has to do with the One-Shot Method Beauty Cover.
I’m going to tell you now.
The Engine Beauty Cover, despite being an aesthetically and functionally important component, was always neglected by international car makers’ suppliers: it is the product that has seen the least amount of innovation in the last 20 years. The materials and processes haven’t changed, just like the production line.
The problem we couldn’t get rid of, was that it needed three different stamps, and we had to ask external suppliers to provide the foam filling step.
Basically, with the traditional process, there are steps:
- Three different stamps for the moulding of the components
- PUR injection provided by external suppliers
- Assembly and bonding of components with starlocks and washers
This always led to side effects:
- Three moulding steps for a single components, with a major waste of time and surface in the company; more costs and factors to keep into account
- More suppliers for a single cover: more difficulties in managing the process;
- More transportation costs and more environmental footprint.
The problem started with the long production line: there were two technologies involved in the making of the engine cover – injection moulding and the injection of foam PUR, which had NEVER been united.
Just like Curry’s three point shot, that summarized years of strategies in a single action, capable of changing the game, we had to summarize two processes into a single one.
SAPA’s engineers from the “Innovation Engineering” department, worked hard on it.
How?
By applying the One-Shot Method, which is currently the fastest in the world for the manufacturing of car components.
The One-Shot Method ensures the same performances in terms of quality, for your car components with:
- Less Weight
- Less Costs
- More Productivity
The solution was radically changing the initial process
What is the difference between Stephen Curry’s seven meters three pointers and an entire offensive action with the team passing the ball in the offensive court?
The result is the same, but the speed and number of scored baskets changes drastically.
The same way our One-Shot Engine Beauty Cover gets to the same result:
- Getting rid of the assembly stages, decreasing the possibility of mistakes;
- Reducing work stages, costs and time;
- Focusing the entire process in a single productive workstation
Everything in accordance with Horizon 2020.
Thanks to the Engine Beauty Cover you will enhance productivity by 300%. That’s right: 300%.
Therefore:
- You won’t have to assembly the pin on the engine;
- The pin is obtained from the stamp, and is therefore more resistant;
- There’s a fewer step in the manufacturing of the cover and a smaller hook on the engine cover.
As I was telling you, SAPA’s One-Shot Engine Ebauty Cover has already been mounted on the Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.6.
Going back to Stephen Curry: he started something that didn’t exist before he came around; or better, it existed but was far from the norm and gradually became so thanks to him.
It is not always easy to understand that the new way is the best way, but sometimes you’ve got to believe in a new idea.
Giovanni Affinita,
Chief Sales Strategist and Member of SAPA’s Board of Directors
