With the honor of being Autokabel’s first plant to be established outside the European continent, Auto Kabel de Mexico (AKMX) was founded in 1997 with the purpose of fulfilling the needs of existing customers that have assembly plants in America, as is the case of VW de Mexico, Ford and BMW USA, with the platforms A4, NB, C170 and E85. Operations began with 2 German and 3 Mexican employees.
After several years of hard work, AKMX obtained at the end of 2004 its first locally awarded business, General Motors’ GMT-900 platform, which at the time was considered the biggest platform in the automotive industry with annual production of 1.7 Million vehicles. For this level of production it was necessary an expansion into a bigger building, so management found the right plant with a manufacturing space of 9,000 mts².
The relationship between AKMX and GM started on the right foot, as AKMX received the award for best supplier for models 2006 and 2008. During this growth phase the technology of friction welding for aluminum cables for the customer BMW (and eventually for GM as well) was transferred to AKMX. Actually there are 4 friction welding machines in operation.
Due to the high performance and excellent quality with GM, in 2011 AKMX is awarded the K2XX platform (successor of GMT-900). In addition, the first global platform with GM, the D2XX, is also awarded, which will be produced in three continents, America, Asia and Europe.
The high production volume for these two programs will require more manufacturing space, and this time Auto Kabel decided to establish a permanent presence in the city with the investment in a fully owned building. This new building currently has an area of over 12,000 mts², with the option to increase space to 24,000 mts² in total.
In 2016 AKMX completed the installation of a drawing line for the manufacturing of aluminum cables and an extrusion line, as well as the transfer of the Solid Busbar Aluminum technology for Audi’s Q5 platform.
• Established 1997
• 700 employees
• Over 42,000 cables produced daily
Since 2011, Auto Kabel de Mexico began with 2 strategies: Lean Philosophy and Social Responsibility
In less than 4 years there has been an improvement in manufacturing and warehouse space utilization of at least 30% which translates to savings of over $400,000 USD. In addition, an empowerment program was created for employees, where they are encouraged to submit ideas for process and system improvements. So far, more than 80 ideas have been implemented for this self-sustained program, ranging from ergonomics, security, quality, etc.
Around that same period AKMX decided to support their employees starting a program (with support of the Mexican government) for all adult employees who would like to finish their basic and intermediate studies. From 2011 up to now more than 40 employees have finished their basic education with the help of this program, which generates the commitment and motivation of our people.