Edscha says it is a world leader in the innovation of door hinges and door checks.

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The Edscha Group has been a partner to the automotive industry since the invention of the automobile, the company says. With 29 production sites worldwide, including 23 plants, Edscha provides almost all motor vehicle manufacturers with door hinges and door checks.

The company says its experience and technical excellence allow it to be a world market leader in innovation for its products. “The primary objective of Edscha is to steadily increase the value of the company in the interest of its shareholders, employees and customers,” the company says.    

“To achieve this, our products, our manufacturing processes and our customer service must be best in class and remain so. Accordingly, we concentrate on niches in the automobile industry in which we already hold such a position or can work to obtain it in the medium term. We will thus continue to grow faster than the market.”

Edscha explains its strategy is to take advantage of the major trends in the automotive industry: globalization, streamlining the supply chain, adapting from producing components to creating systems and outsourcing production and development.

The company also intends to improve its market position by expanding its development capacities. Edscha has operations throughout Europe, Asia and North and South America; its North American headquarters are in Pontiac, Mich. Striving to help develop “the better vehicle,” the Edscha group explains it has three business divisions:

• Hinge systems – The company says it is a world leader in the innovation of door hinges and door checks. It is fueling this market, it says, by developing new door-opening concepts, powered hinges and pedestrian-protection systems.
• Convertible roof systems – Edscha says by continually producing new roof designs, it is fueling the convertible boom in Europe and North America.
• Driver controls – Edscha has been able to increase its business in foot controls and parking brakes due to increased outsourcing by automakers.

‘Efficiency and Leadership’
Last year, the company introduced its first retractable hardtop convertible with the launch of the new BMW 3 Series convertible at the North American International Auto Show. This three-part roof, the firm says, is the first of its kind on the market for Edscha.   

Developed and manufactured by Edscha, the lightweight sheet-steel roof can be opened and closed fully automatically in 22 seconds. Edscha says the 3 Series convertible has four fully adequate seats and as much as 350 liters of space in the trunk with the top up. With the top down, the luggage compartment has a capacity of 210 liters.    

The company explains it used a “sophisticated, innovative kinematical layout” to ensure the car had a flat silhouette, small package size of the folded three-part roof system and relatively large trunk volume even with the top down.

“The winning of this contract and its outstanding result – the first BMW convertible with a retractable hardtop – furnishes another proof of Edscha’s efficiency and leadership in the area of convertible roof systems,” Axel Schulmeyer, member of Edscha’s management board, said in a statement.

The company notes the past three generations of the BMW 3 Series also were fitted with roof systems from Edscha; to date, that equals more than 650,000 units.

Attracting Quality People
Last year, Edscha was named Top Automotive Employer in a study by the Corporate Research Foundation and AT Kearny management consultants. The study, the company says, portrays the winning companies as the industry’s most innovative producers of vehicles and suppliers of components and services.    

Edscha says this publication is intended to aid university graduates – in particular, those from technical fields – in choosing their employers.  Additionally, companies in the study are able to call attention to themselves while competing for well-trained specialists.