PLYMOUTH, Mich., Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Simpson Industries, Inc.
(Nasdaq: SMPS) today dedicated its new $10 million Technical Center.  Located
in Plymouth, Michigan, the center is a critical element in Simpson's strategy
to increase its global sales and profitability.
    "Today, customers in the automotive and heavy duty industries are asking
suppliers to take on much more responsibility for product design and testing.
The new Tech Center gives our people an enhanced ability to meet their needs
by consolidating product design, engineering, development, and testing under
one roof," explained Roy E. Parrott, president and chief executive officer of
Simpson Industries.
    "Giving us the ability to control the design and development of our
products is tantamount to giving us the ability to control our future.  We
believe that design, more than anything else, controls the manufacturability
-- and as much as 90 percent of the cost -- of a component or assembly," he
added.
    Simpson, with annual sales of $395.1 million in 1995, designs and
manufactures powertrain and chassis products for the automotive and heavy duty
original equipment markets.  It focuses on four product groups: Noise,
Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) Products; Modular Engine Assemblies; Wheel-End
and Suspension Assemblies; and High-Precision Machined Components.
    "A few years ago, our customers designed almost everything that went under
the hood and into the vehicle.  For a supplier like Simpson, competitiveness
by and large meant taking the prints they provided us and doing a great job of
manufacturing high quality machined-to-print, high-precision components,"
Parrott told guests at today's dedication ceremonies.
    "But increasingly today," Parrott continued, "the key to our success is
Simpson's ability to provide design and engineering solutions to those
customers.  We used to be judged by the quality of our work; today, we're also
judged by the quality of our ideas."
    At Simpson's Tech Center, sophisticated design and testing equipment, much
of it developed by Simpson itself, permits the company's people to provide
those solutions.
    "Using computers to streamline the design process, our technicians can
develop 'soft prototypes,' reducing the product development cycle.  Once we
finalize a design, we can close the loop by testing it under actual usage
conditions, then use the testing data to optimize the design, often reducing a
part's or a component's weight and cost for our customers," Parrott noted.
    Providing this level of service and support, he added, is helping the
company become the preferred partner to its customers.
    The Tech Center's design capabilities include Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
and Finite Element Analysis (FEA).  Its Materials Engineering Lab is American
Association of Accredited Labs-accredited and meets QS-9000 standards.
    In addition to the Technical Center, Simpson Industries operates eleven
manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.  Eight of those
plants already meet QS-9000 standards, and the remaining three are on
aggressive certification schedules.
    The company was founded in 1912, when Robert J. Simpson converted a
blacksmith shop into a garage and repair business in Litchfield, Michigan.

Link to this page: