Cost-cutting Directions for Automotive Wiring Harnesses

I. Ways to reduce the cost of wire harnesses

1. Ask for a price reduction: The whole car company asks the wiring harness supplier to reduce the price

Quality of wiring harness decreases (new employees, change to cheaper crude and shoddy parts, production growth (more defective products))

2. Competitive bidding (cost and supplier capability)

Supplier capacity.

(1). Product price

(2). Production and supply capacity (quantity, provision of premises)

(3). Product quality

(4). Purchasing capacity of parts (quantity, improvement of purchasing method)

(5). Design capability (wiring harness design capability, design quality)

(6). Harness testing (quality, performance, endurance reliability)

Price = Harness parts cost + production cost + design cost + overhead

NOTE: With the price to determine the supplier has a dangerous

3. By design to reduce costs

(1). Use of cheap parts: Decrease in quality, durability, and reliability

(2). Use of very thin wires: easy to break, increased crimping costs

(3). Use of aluminum wire: unstable wire supply, increased crimping costs

(4). Use of multiple communication: increase in electronic products (modules) and cost

4. Reduce production costs

(1). Change of skilled workers to new employees

(2). Changing production sites: moving to Mainland China

(3). Relocation to overseas production: Southeast Asia

(4). Replace manual labor with automation

(5). Lean production

II. Wire Harness Cost Analysis

1. The connotation of wire harness cost

Wires --------- 30% general wire, heat-resistant wire, special wire

Parts ------- 30% terminals, connectors, rubber rings, protection parts

Processing cost ------- 30% Cutting and crimping, insertion, assembly, inspection, labor cost

Management sales fee - 10% Various other fees (design fees, etc.)

2. Focus on cost reduction

Wire cost - 80% of copper core, 20% of resin outer skin, using thin wire will be cheaper

Parts --- PVC tape < cloth tape, using PVC tape will be cheaper

Processing cost - processing time x labor cost = processing cost

Produce or automate in places where labor cost is cheap, reduce staff cost and processing time

III. Cost reduction through harness design

1. Reduce wire diameter

According to the rated current value design: (European, American) (Japanese) FUSE 15A downstream 0.75SQ

Design according to FUSE fuse: (Japanese) FUSE 15A down current 0.5SQ

Keyword： Maximum allowable current of electric wire

●Heat-resistant temperature of electric wires, FUSE fusing characteristics, voltage drop

●Permissible electric wire current value, inrush current value

●Fume generation characteristics of electric wires rated current

2. Optimal configuration of parts and wiring

Re-examine the configuration of BCM and SW - right BCM - left BCM CPU (body control module)

Abolition of duplicate trails.

3 paths from front cabin to the interior - 2 paths or 1 path

Body wiring harness left and right path - left path + right door harness

3. Absorb the difference between high and low configuration

Base + other configurations

Top - advanced equipment: the cheapest basic harness + advanced equipment

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