At the end of June, the Automotive Focus Group (AFG) invited Dr. Chaiyant Savanachai from BorgWarner Thailand who spoke about their current and future activities in Thailand and ASEAN.
Dr. Chaiyant Savanachai is the General Manager, BorgWarner (Thailand) in control of Thailand operations, and reporting to HQ USA.
Dr. Chaiyant Savanachai from BorgWarner Thailand.
With a PhD in international Corporate Management, a Masters in International Economics and a Bachelor in Telecommunication Engineering Dr Chaiyant was an interesting speaker who was well qualified to address the AFG members.
He began with an introduction to global BorgWarner, and then the BorgWarner ASEAN Development & Growth, finishing with a discussion as to where Thailand is heading and the challenges to Thailand in the global marketplace.
He proudly pointed out that the Vision for BorgWarner was to be the global technology leader in powertrain solutions. Their results in 2012 included 7.18 billion dollars in sales, with 19,100 employees in 57 locations in 19 countries. Their products covered transmissions, engines and driveline systems, with engines covering 68 percent of sales and powertrains 32 percent of sales. The market drivers for BorgWarner being fuel economy, emissions and performance.
With engine development going towards down-sizing, turbocharging has become important to produce power, and at the same time produce up to 30 percent improvement in fuel consumption.
Interestingly, he pointed out that China and India are still relying on low technology, while the rest of the western world is heading towards hybrids and energy saving. Electric supercharging is on its way, with electronic wastegate actuators and exotic materials to be used in turbine wheels.
Dr Chaiyant’s talk was dotted with humorous interludes, where he said that the only copying the firm had to do was to copy themselves! He also showed slides of the Indy 500 trophy given each year by his company, standing the height of a man, which required a new plinth, to add more winner’s names, as BorgWarner had been donating the trophy for every year since inception.
After the address, the AFG members went on to a networking session with snacks and drinks at the Amari’s ICE BAR.
