It has positioned itself as one of the leading and most important manufacturers of auto interior parts, with one of the most extensive lists of OEM clients in the region.

Kasai Mexicana has established itself as one of the automotive anchor companies in Guanajuato and Mexico that came to the state to open the way for this sector and all related suppliers.

Currently, it has three plants in the entity.

They all handle the injection molding, assembly of injected parts and other components, textile cutting, fiberglass, moldings, and preforms.

In addition, they have other more technological processes such as plastic injection by compression molding, manual and automatic sewing, textile, and PVC cutting by CNC, water jet cutting, preforming press, die cuts, and automated assemblies utilizing robots.

Among its main products are door trims, interior pillars, awnings, interior trunk components, exterior plastic components, noise insulation, and sun visors.

The relevance of this company in Mexico is high since, after 25 years in the country and in the Bajio region, it has positioned itself as one of the primary and most important manufacturers of auto interior parts, with one of the most extensive lists of OEM clients in the region.

The company is in Guanajuato due to its proximity to General Motors, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, and Mazda plants.

Aldo García, senior director of manufacturing at Kasai Mexicana, announced that, in addition to being one of the first auto parts suppliers installed in Guanajuato, they are currently characterized as one of the leaders in the market by meeting the requirements of different OEMs., which demand diverse and strict quality parameters.

"25 years ago, we were the first Tier 1 company to join the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) program, where we strengthened our chain of Japanese suppliers in Mexico; in 2022, we expanded our export level, being suppliers of Toyota North America, in addition to starting with Toyota Canada and Lexus; likewise, we are manufacturing auto parts for export for Nissan North America as Tier 2, as a regional strategy in conjunction with our sister plants in the US to maximize the company's productivity," he explained.

The added value of Kasai Mexicana is the wide variety of tonnages in the injection machines since they have machines from 75 tons of clamping force where small parts such as button panels, support, and union components are produced, up to 3,000-ton closing force machines, which allow the manufacture of features such as rear doors, up to a set of side doors in just 40 seconds, which is very scarce in the Bajío area, as well as manufacturing processes in a sequenced manner (not by batch) which considerably reduces physical inventories and optimizes space.

"Our added value is the installed capacity and the design of our products that allow flexibility in the face of market fluctuations and the large-scale technology that allows us to adjust and lower operating costs," he added.

The company currently produces seven million parts per month, compared to 2019, when it made five million per month.

QUALITY SUPPLIERS AND RECOGNITION

Aldo García mentioned that its participation in JICA represents not only a certification to meet the high standards that an automotive company requires but strengthens KASAI's image towards OEMs in similarly commits and supports its supply chain through the assisted upgrade of Tier N.

He said that for 25 years, they had ensured quality and delivery times, backed by the multiple awards and acknowledgments they receive from OEMs year after year. 

"As suppliers, we are evaluated, and we find ourselves in a classified segment, with quality being our best letter of introduction," he said.

He asserted that they add the best practices and requirements of the OEMs to the normative base of Kasai Mexicana. These standards are added to the Kasai Production System, forming part of its DNA to be more competitive and meet the expectations of our local and global clients. 

"In recent years, we have been winning premium car projects; without a doubt, if we had not evolved and adopted best practices as part of our continuous improvement system, we would not be acquiring these new projects," he explained.

INTRODUCTION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Although Kasai does not have 100% automated production lines, they carry out semi-automatic processes since robotizing operations aims to achieve labor efficiency and ensure product reproducibility with the slightest variation to meet standards, quality, and cost targets.

The manager assured that the search for automation help operations that require precision and ensure that the product fulfills its function.

"There are processes where, when doing them manually, the variation can be substantial, leading to more waste and products out of specification; this is when automation is required to avoid losses."

Currently, the plant applies industry 4.0 automation systems, including field control, floor control, and 4.0 operation.

 "We know that the industry is evolving; Industry 4.0 seeks to make the digital world meet the physical world (aiming for the digital world to meet with the physical world). 

In addition, they establish management controls since these systems are installed on all the lines, making the power of operations more efficient.

He said it is also essential to train staff to know how to operate these systems and learn to interact with them to maintain the indicators digitally.

The company in Mexico has been manufacturing components for electric cars since 2012; however, the trend is for these projects to increase, which is why some of their current models have been modified from their design to fit the needs of this new market.

"It's a challenge, for sure, but due to planning from our design and development department, we were ready to react when the changes came out," he added.

With this boom in products and products and the market expansion that led to the change to Kasai, they have gone from 30% to 70% for national purchases.

EVOLUTION IN SAFETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Aldo García opined that the planet requires better care due to environmental wear and tear; for this reason, Kasai has added value to customer initiatives focused on mitigating environmental damage derived from the design and manufacture of its products, adapting processes to build sustainable development, keeping th health and safety of team members and the end user as a top priority.

Kasai Mexicana's products and processes evolve with the development of a new project, seeking their horizontality, applying, and standardizing all the lessons learned in a constant cycle of PDCA and continuous improvement.

He exemplified that in some products, their design has changed based on the end-users' safety, and the client demands high standards in terms of the performance of the tests. The above has modified the technology that they print in their processes, as well as the materials.

From an environmental point of view, Aldo García explained that the processes have evolved towards sustainable development; for example, using solvents has been eliminated to adopt other products that do not represent a risk to the environment.

One of the trends that Kasai has adopted is to implement new technologies to emulate the function of adhering one component to another, using materials free of volatile organic compounds.

KASAI IN MEXICO

• Indirect purchases: 91% are national, 44% are from Guanajuato, and the rest are from abroad.
• Direct purchases: 61% are national, 35.1% are from Guanajuato, and 39% come from the US. 
• They have machines with 75 tons of clamping force to produce small components and 3,000 tons of clamping force for significant components.
• They have a workforce of 2,000 collaborators.