3M's Automotive Industry Center Gets a New Home and a Broader Charter
16 September 1997
3M's Automotive Industry Center Gets a New Home and a Broader Charter
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Sept. 16 -- The focal point of 3M's
global automotive activity is moving to a new, purpose-built
facility with significantly expanded capabilities. The new quarters, which
will replace the company's Automotive Industry Center in Southfield, Mich.,
are expected to be ready in mid-1998.
The new center will be centrally located in northwestern metropolitan
Detroit. Larger in size and mission, the facility reflects 3M's strengthening
market focus and ongoing determination to provide automakers and their
suppliers with world-class affordable solutions. "We're responding to a
global competitive need to integrate everything we do that relates to the
design, manufacture, marketing, and service of a vehicle throughout its
lifetime," says AIC Executive Director Tom Beddow. "This new facility is a
key element in that commitment."
Features will include:
* A "virtual reality" theater that will enable visitors to interactively
visualize and integrate 3M's automotive applications and technologies
as well as those from other markets served by 3M.
* Larger laboratories with ample room for hands-on demonstrations,
engineering work and training related to application development for
production and nonproduction materials and automotive aftermarket
solutions.
* Significantly improved design studio including work areas for
confidential product evaluation and prototyping.
* A core display area featuring reconfigurable vehicle and component
displays, and the ability to simulate marketing environments.
* An improved CAD/CAM/CAE facility to enable on-line conceptual design.
* Vehicle access through the facility.
The new AIC will house about 100 program management, design and technical
support staff who represent the 17 3M product divisions that serve the
automotive industry. The two-story structure will occupy about 60,000 sq. ft.
with expansion potential to 90,000 sq. ft.
Beddow predicts visitors will appreciate the building's "roll-up-your-
sleeves" atmosphere and enlarged areas for product development, evaluation and
training activities. Extensive computer-aided design and engineering
capabilities will enable proactive on-site and on-line knowledge transfer. A
Comprehensive Integrated Solutions Laboratory will showcase 3M solutions for
manufacturing and assembly plants, including safety and environmental
management systems.
Many 3M products will be used in the actual construction and fit-out of
the building such as the Volition(TM) telecommunications system, which simply
and efficiently brings high band width to the desktop, 3M(TM) privacy film and
light pipes, and the latest in 3M meeting room systems.
A major architectural objective for the facility is to create the greatest
possible flexibility, including the ability to showcase nonautomotive 3M
technologies when necessary. Says Beddow, "All areas will be able to be
reconfigured quickly to work with engineers one day, designers and marketers
the next, and production people the day after that."
A driving force behind the new center is 3M's desire to optimize its role
in the auto industry's "value chain" of design, component production,
assembly, marketing, repair, service and aftermarket functions. Says Beddow,
"This center's mission is to present and illustrate 3M technologies in an
integrated fashion that will enable speed, economy and value in meeting the
needs of the industry."
SOURCE 3M