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The TPR interviewed Percy Vreeken, General Manager, at TransNav Worldwide. Based in New Baltimore, MI, TransNav is a company founded on global principles, specializing in injection molding and tooling for the automotive industry. What is your company niche, and what does your company do that is notable, unique or different? The
TransNav Group of companies primarily provides engineering, design,
prototype, production tooling and production with or without assembly to
the automotive industry in owned and joint venture facilities throughout
key world market areas. Main products manufactured include interior and
functional “under the hood” and exterior components. Key expertise
includes in-house tooling capabilities and an international footprint.
We have very low overhead and offer competitive advantages to our
customers
Relate a notable "best time" for your company. After the delivery of one of our first tools, the receipt of an order for the next program would certainly qualify as a warm moment – it vindicated our belief that we were on to something. The
next best moment occurred when we recognized that we could not only
engineer and produce high quality molds for our customers but that we
could profitably produce parts and assemblies in-house.
TransNav has thrived by offering confidence to our customers, being one of the first in the automotive sector to offer economical tooling built to high standards by using a global tooling base combined with the early use of joint ventured and purchased technologies. For example, TransNav was the first to offer plastic speaker grilles to replace expanded metal products; TransNav was the first to use heat pipe hot runners in wheel trim applications; we created unique collapsible core tooling for roofing products and lately we introduced patented, multi-component suspension parts molded as one piece assemblies.
When you are working on projects with your customers, what aspects would you like them to better recognize?
That they can utilize our in-house engineering expertise to make product
improvements, and that we offer complete program management and
international sourcing capabilities. List newly acquired technology, machinery or key personnel (in last year).
Mitsubishi 950 ton press/Kawaguchi 650 ton press/laser die cutting
machinery and many additional items. Has your company recently expanded? Plans to expand or form partnerships/alliances?
TransNav is expanding in New Baltimore, Michigan, to add 38,000 sq ft in
manufacturing/warehouse space. TransNav Mexico has added a 20,000 sq ft
warehouse and additionally is doing the ground work for an additional
25,000 sq ft of warehouse and manufacturing space. TransNav formed a
partnership with Hayco/Forson in China early this year to serve
automotive customers with tooling and production requirements.
No. I became one of the members of the Board of Advisors at Wayne State University to try to find people who would become part of the industry – to try to find qualified persons who have interest in becoming part of this industry. What do you think about changes occurring in the industry due to globalization? How has it affected the way you do business? This is the reason we exist today. Principally, the advent of the Internet and electronic age has made globalization so dramatically border-free and easier to manage and discover new opportunities that it’s been absolutely incredible. Applying the knowledge we had from our earlier days and knowing we can deliver products now in less than 6 weeks (develop and create new designs and concepts in a matter of hours instead of having to get together with customers around the world) has enabled us to become even more competitive.
Competition is no longer the guy across the street, but now the guy in
Shenzhen, China, who may have a company with a much lower labor rate who
can take business from us. Customers now shop everywhere. It’s been
quite an amazing dynamic and great learning experience. We export about
25% of our manufacturing items here. Because of the strength of the
dollar now, for example, we do a lot of business in Europe, but for some
products, it’s actually cheaper to manufacture here. Materials costs are
also sometime cheaper here. You are forced by your customer to supply a
global product wherever they happen to have a need for it. The way that
GM and Volkswagen develop cars, you don’t necessarily have the same
models of cars everywhere in the world but many of the parts within the
models around the world are the same. They develop a platform for each
product. What will the industry look like in 3 to 5 years?
Additional background information: Number of years in business: 25 Current number of employees: 300
Additional locations: Mexico (pictured at right), China, Germany Website: www.transnav.com Types of tools built and/or run: injection molds, all types, with clamping capabilities ranging from 40 to 1,500 tons. Industries served: Automotive
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because
of our international partnerships and in-house services. Tooling
development and engineering services done here at our U.S. headquarters
and then moved to our Mexico facility after all the approvals are
obtained from the customer has been a tremendous advantage for us.
Logistically, it offers a huge advantage both form a communications
standpoint and a cost savings standpoint. Our heritage is as a trading
company originally. We were always aware that America is not the only
place that has the tooling and molding expertise and became one of the
first companies that imported some of the many important tools for the
automotive industry.
TransNav
evolved from an importer of custom built automotive injection molds from
Portugal in the early eighties. Originally part of a large Montreal,
Canada based shipping company (Fednav), TransNav had international roots
and significant logistics expertise. The main attraction to the market
during the early years was the recognition that one day the world would
be a global market place and that important and cost saving technologies
and labor expertise existed in other places in the world.
Similarly,
relate notable challenges that your company has overcome.
Are you
involved in any industry organizations or educational programs related
to the trade?
When a
customer walks into our doors or we approach a customer, we look at them
to decide what is the best approach. We look at it from where is the
best economical perspective from the customer’s point of view for him to
get the product? We access services from all corners of the earth – even
designs. You would never have been able to look at that 20 years ago, it
wouldn’t have made any sense. Why is globalization there now? Because of
changes in technology. 
That’s
hard to predict. Prices of oil will govern the price of many other
things related to the industry, namely raw material pricing and consumer
demand. As technology gets faster and faster you’ll see labor related
operations moving more and more to low cost countries. You’ll still see
highly automated facilities still operating here because we still have
some advantages in the U.S. But we have a fantastic handicap in the lack
of skilled labor. There will always be a need for tooling produced here
because in many cases it’s more cost-effective to manufacture here. A
lot of creativity is born in the U.S. and that’s worth something to
customers worldwide. As for our company specifically, we have a very
well developed global five-year expansion plan; we see a positive and
bright future for us. A lot of that, though, depends on material, labor
costs, the political climate, taxes and regulations, which will probably
only get worse because it’s easy money for our government.
Current
square footage (each location): 600,000 total all locations
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