(Yicai) May 24 -- Aptiv is introducing the intelligent manufacturing solutions developed at its Anting factory in Shanghai to the UK auto parts maker’s plants in South Korea and India to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Technicians from China are working at Aptiv’s factories in South Korea and India to help drive the intelligent transformation of production processes, Xu Xiaoying, director of Aptiv Asia-Pacific Operations, told Yicai yesterday.

Aptiv’s Anting plant is the Dublin-based company’s largest production, research, and development base for auto connection systems and it is the world’s second-largest vehicle connector supplier.

The ‘intelligent brain’ developed by the China team uses automation and digitalization to precisely organize the entire production process at the Anting factory and if there is a quality issue, the team can easily trace the faulty link and repair it. Operating costs have been cut around 30 percent, he added.

Actif was able to develop an industry-leading intelligent production system at the Anting plant because China has large and mature supply chains and a fast-growing automotive market, Xu said. When the company needs help, it is easy to find suppliers that can offer a solution.

For example, Aptiv used to rely on imports of equipment and precision molds, but now 80 percent of the precision molds used at its global connector production plants are from the plant in Shanghai, Xu said. Around 70 percent of the products made at the Anting factory supply the China market and the rest is exported.

Aptiv’s China sales have maintained double-digit growth every year over the past three years thanks to the smart transformation of and rapid innovation in the country’s automotive industry which has helped spur self-developed technologies.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor