By Andrew Markel and Mark Phillips
SPRINGFIELD, Ky. — In an area of the country better known for distilling bourbon, Akebono Brake Corporation is distilling its OE expertise into aftermarket disc brake pads. Kentucky currently is the home to all Akebono North American manufacturing facilities and its North American headquarters.
Recently, aftermarketNews was given an exclusive tour of Akebono’s Aftermarket brake pad plants. The Springfield, Ky., facility manufactures its own aftermarket lines and private-brand brake pad lines, plus brake pads and components for Original Equipment Service (OES).
Unlike other automotive components and products, how a brake pad is manufactured is unique and proprietary to every top-tier brake manufacturer. The cost of the equipment and complex molds justify a premium price. The Akebono North American Aftermarket plant is no exception.
Akebono uses the same proprietary equipment and manufacturing processes for both its OE and aftermarket offerings. The manufacturing process employed emphasizes high quality and consistency. Akebono claims the plant has a warranty rate of less than 7/10th (0.7) of one percent or 12 to 13 parts per million.
“At all Akebono facilities, we practice small-batch production,” said Tommy Rivera, plant manager for the Springfield facility. “We utilize an OE-standard quality control process on our aftermarket production lines. Running small-batch production supports our high quality standards and enables us to perform the same rigid testing required by our OEM customers.”
Flexibility is built into the Akebono manufacturing process. The brake pad production module can be changed to a new part with little or no downtime or chances for defects. This allows for a lean inventory that can quickly adjust to customer demand.
“We’re also a just-in-time manufacturer. We build only what is ordered when it’s ordered, not in advance,” Rivera said. “The customer dictates the quantity of our orders.”
It’s almost counter-intuitive that “smaller is better” in today’s manufacturing world. But, Akebono has harnessed the “small batch” approach to deliver the best possible product with a 99 percent fill rate. The approach has also allowed Akebono to take on new customers.
Akebono claims to have 35 percent market share of the new vehicle brake pad market in North America. According to OEM engineers, Akebono’s ceramic technology offers excellent Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) control. The use of ceramic friction at the OEM level continues to increase every year and is expected to continue growing over the next several years. As the engineers who introduced the first ceramic friction formulations to the OEMs, the future looks strong for Akebono.
“Our core competency is the identification, analysis and control of vibration which leads to brake noise,” said Kenneth Selinger, director of product development for Akebono North America. “We bring the same OEM processes and formulations to the aftermarket.”
Akebono officials are proud to say that more than 98 percent of its aftermarket offerings in North America are made in the U.S. at its Kentucky manufacturing facilities. This is an encouraging sign when many manufacturers and marketers are establishing manufacturing capabilities in the Pacific Rim.
