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THE SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION AND ACS BUSINESS CONFERENCE

Automotive Cluster of Slovenia GIZ ACS organised the second annual convention on the 13^th May 2004. The topic of the convention was "Developmental trends in the automotive supplier industry".

The importance of this topic in Slovenia was pointed out by the president of the Management Board of Revoz d.d. Michel Bouton, who discussed in his report the investments into the production of a new Renault vehicle which will be first launched on the market from the Novo mesto factory and therewith connected problem of insufficiency of the supplier environment for such needs. For the production that is supposed to start in 2006 with the capacity of 200 vehicles per day, 40 groups of products that could be supplied within Slovenia have been identified so far. Sixty percent of these have been confirmed (as tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers, as mixed companies or as new investments), thirty percent have been refused and the remaining ten percent are still to be decided upon. Mr. Bouton also demonstrated what it means to get involved as a supplier into the Renault-Nissan supplier system and expressed his critical opinion about high prices of some Slovene suppliers as well as toolmakers.

In accordance with the generally known fact that European automotive supplier industry can achieve competitiveness in the globalized world only by innovations and costs control, the lecture by Phillip Radtke D.Sc. was very welcome. As a partner in the McKinsey&Co bureau in München and a distinguished adviser in the field of machine-building, car manufacture and supplier industry as well as the manager of the strategic project HAWK, Mr. Radtke presented this project and the findings in his lecture "Knowledge-based changes in the automotive value chain". The presentation of development of factual (sub)systems and modules until the year 2015 and the sequence of these innovations attracted a lot of attention. The biggest changes and the growth of shares in the structure of costs are suggested in the field of interior decorating, powertrain and chassis. Using new knowledge, new integration of development and production processes will significantly change the research and industrial automotive sphere in the near future. Mr. Radtke introduced new innovation fields and the need for forming new associations to the participants of the convention.

Karsten Huelsmann, the director of Market research and planning at Magna Steyr from Graz, Austria presented the process of changes of supply in automotive industry on an example of the dynamic system Magna Steyr, car manufacturer and system supplier or an integrator in the automotive industry. This was the perfect time for the presentation of their strategy, choice of suppliers and cooperation with them since for the last two months the experts from their Strategic supply have been visiting and holding meetings in companies - ACS members, and some other companies introduced by ACS as suppliers for car manufacturers from Slovenia. Magna Steyr would like to gain new suppliers in Slovenia, in addition to the existing ones.

The Director of ACS, Dusan Busen, talked about the mutual offer for OEM's and the opportunities for gaining new customers on new markets and about using new opportunities. Mainly for the foreign participants, Mr. Busen presented a short tradition and development of Slovene automotive and automotive supplier industry, starting with Janez Puh. He introduced the preferential tasks of the Automotive Cluster of Slovenia in the field of common promotion to car manufacturers and system suppliers, cooperation with foreign clusters and networks, acceleration of development of more complex new products in smaller groups of companies (virtual companies), the expansion of the membership and improvement of the ACS information and communication system. He also explained the expected growth of ACS in the direction of a highly innovative cluster and he defined the key conditions and goals of growth.

In the second part of the convention some new products were introduced and new examples of cooperation in development of complex projects in ACS were presented. Mr. Marko Gorjup,M.Sc, the Director of TPV-Tadis, described their way to the development supplier in the automotive industry and introduced a few developed products. Primoz Ekart, the Director of the Developmental & Technological Sector at Iskra Mehanizmi introduced new mechatronic systems. Primoz Mihelic,M.Sc.,the Director of R&D at Cimos presented their experiences with simultaneous engineering on new products. Bojan Puklavec, the Director of TVM Razvoj, introduced the development of a new airport bus the first series of which is already being mass-produced. Stojan Markic, the Head of Propulsion System Research at Iskra Avtoelektrika d.d. introduced the development of integrated flywheel generator.

The goals of the convention were achieved: the presentation of the mutual offer, the stimulation for better cooperation in the field of R&D, acceleration of technological investments in Slovenia as well as our investments abroad, the expansion of the membership and the quality of communication in ACS. The president of the National Council Janez Susnik made the welcoming, opening speech in which he emphasised the meaning of the automotive and automotive supplier sector as one of the leading industrial and R&D service sectors in Slovene economy. The president of the Chamber of Commerce Jozko Cuk, M.Sc talked about the share of the automotive and automotive supplier sector and economic conditions of industrial and economic growth. The state secretary, Mateja Mesl,M.Sc, who used to work with the Minister Tea Petrin and takes credit, together with her, for the development of clusters in Slovenia, including the automotive one, made her last public speech on behalf of the Ministry of the Economy.

The convention was followed by the ACS Business Conference in the afternoon. It was organised as ONE - ON - ONE meeting among the representatives of car manufacturers and system suppliers, car components producers, their suppliers as well as performers of development, production and other services and producers of tools and machines for the automotive industry.

The convention and the business conference were international since there were 120 participants who came form Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Mexico, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro. Many participants were from the clusters and supply networks that ACS has already been cooperating with in Austria and Germany (AC Styria, me2c, AC-TMG, BAIKE) and Russian Federation (national automotive suppliers association NAPAK).

The convention broadened some of our knowledge about the trends and new opportunities of automotive suppliers in development trends in automotive and automotive supplier industry in Europe and in the world. Furthermore, some experiences were shared about the innovations of complex products and progressive technologies in automotive supplier industry. The business conference, on the other hand, was an opportunity for the participants (from more than 40 companies) to make new contacts for developmental partnerships and for a bigger extent of cooperation between industrial, R&D service companies in the field of automotive activity in Slovenia and other countries. With further expansion of the membership and development projects as well as by keeping and expanding the market positions of the ACS members in Europe and elsewhere, the Slovene suppliers will soon establish themselves as the Slovene automotive supplier park.

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