In the world of global auto suppliers, Toyota-affiliated brake manufacturer ADVICS Co. Ltd. is a relative newcomer. Despite being the “go to” brake company for the world’s biggest automaker, ADVICS is less than 15 years old and only began running its first factory in its home country in 2010.
However, braking technology has come a long way in that time. Toyota sees braking as so critical to its next generation vehicles, that it has sent one of its highest-profile executives to run ADVICS. This marks the first time Toyota has installed a leader at the brake maker, though it routinely does so at other suppliers in its vast stable of affiliates.
ADVICS was founded in 2001 as a joint venture of Toyota and three brake related suppliers: Aisin Seiki Co., Denso Corp. and Sumitomo Electric Industries. Today, Aisin holds a 55 percent stake, while Denso and Sumitomo Electric have 18 percent each.
ADVICS’ new chief is Satoshi Ogiso, 54, a former Toyota global product planning guru and longtime development leader for its Prius family of hybrid vehicles. He took the wheel at ADVICS on June 24.
According to ADVICS, Ogiso’s mission is to guide ADVICS into the new era by integrating old school mechanical braking technology with the new high tech digital controls that run everything from hybrid battery recharging and pre-crash emergency stopping to four wheel drive traction features and adaptive cruise control.
The former Toyota managing officer also will oversee the expansion of ADVICS with a technical center opening this month in Kariya, Japan, and its first factory in Mexico scheduled to start production in March. That plant, in Lagos de Moreno in the state of Jalisco, initially will employ 130 workers and will manufacture drum brakes.
In 2001, ADVICS had only a sales and engineering staff. Manufacturing was outsourced to its shareholder companies. ADVICS acquired its first domestic factory in 2010 after buying its Kariya brake plant from Aisin Seiki. Today, ADVICS has 6,790 employees worldwide and factories around the globe, including plants in Ohio, Georgia and Indiana.
