TROY, Mich. — Since Honeywell Transportation Systems announced the formation of the Honeywell Friction Materials business unit in April, a new leadership team has been working to increase its position in the global marketplace.
Honeywell Friction Materials is headquartered in Glinde, Germany, serving both original equipment and aftermarket customers. Products offered by the unit include Bendix and Jurid friction materials and hard parts.
Several executives have joined Dr. Rainer Bostel, president of the business unit, with a common goal of implementing change. Coming onboard are Dr. Heribert Schumacher, vice president, Global Friction Engineering; Uwe Kaster, vice president of Sales and Marketing OE/OES; Willy Mohler, vice president of Aftermarket Sales in Europe, Americas, the Middle East and Asia; and the most recent addition to the leadership team is Miguel TintorÉ, vice president of Marketing. TintorÉ is responsible for ongoing portfolio development, new product launches and brand management. He was previously marketing manager at Honeywell’s Environmental Controls division.
This new team recently announced plans to double Honeywell Friction Materials’ investments in facility improvements, capacity expansions and research and development worldwide.
“Our goal is to further increase productivity in order to satisfy new demand, as well as invest in R&D so that we can continue developing world-class friction products for our OE and aftermarket customers,” said Bostel.
At the company’s R&D facilities in Troy, Mich.; Glinde, Germany; Conde-sur-Noireau, France; and Barcelona, Spain, engineers are developing technological innovations for OE and aftermarket customers that not only respond to current automotive needs, but also address concerns such as reducing abrasion levels and minimizing dust particles.
On the production side, the division is also in the process of implementing the successful Honeywell Operation System (HOS) and automating several manufacturing functions to increase productivity, ensure uniformly high quality standards worldwide as well as help cushion some of the effects of rising raw material costs.
As a result of these investment measures, Honeywell Friction Materials’ plants are expected to attain an annual production capacity of around 100 million brake pads by 2010.
In the first half of 2008, total revenue increased by $35 million compared to 2007’s numbers and the Honeywell business unit is expecting strong numbers in the second half of the year as well.
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