Abstract
With the acceleration of Japanese auto production in China, Japanese parts suppliers are now shifting to supply auto stamping dies locally in stead of importing them from Japan. The purposes of this research are to find out 1) the reason why local supply of stamping dies that was considered technologically difficult has progressed rapidly; 2) whether or not the quality of local products has reached to the level of Japanese ones; 3) or any other reasons for this shift. This paper in particular discusses these reasons from the perspective of the prime user of Japanese parts suppliers. This swift growth of the die production in China has been influenced by the recent Japanese auto firms' simultaneous global production in addition to the "price gap" with Japanese products. In order to achieve simultaneous production identical stamping dies are required in all global production lines. However, Japanese die makers were not able to meet the global demands of the auto stamping dies, and therefore, "localization" of the die production in China where a large number of die makers exist. As for the quality of Chinese stamping dies, it requires 1) ordered designs and accurate forms; 2) mold processing capacities; 3) maintenance advantage; and 4) product durability. The quality depends on A) precision of mold machinery; B) raw material quality; C) design technology; D) data processing ability; E) trial capacity; F) surface treatment application. Chinese die makers have problems with B, C, and E as well as having inferiority with 2), 3) and 4). These quality issues of Chinese stamping dies are caused by the structural features of "lower production quantity of each model of Chinese automobile industry. In short, the auto stamping die industry has not been developed in the auto market in which durable material quality and productivity are a must. Japanese parts suppliers have been, however, trying to use less-satisfied stamping dies in the local market. Specifically, they chose Japanese or Chinese stamping dies depending on the auto parts and production numbers, processing materials, metalworking spots and mold shapes. They also improved maintenance capacity and surface treatment application as well as extending the short product life of Chinese stamping dies. During pressing, Japanese parts suppliers have also chosen structurally simpler stamping dies for lines with more processing operations, and employed after-work treatment at the expense of lower productivity.
