UT Automotive Unveils Revolutionary New Idea Center
18 September 1997
UT Automotive Unveils Revolutionary New Idea Center
DEARBORN, Mich., Sept. 18 -- UT Automotive, a United
Technologies company, today unveiled its new $3 million Idea Center -_ a place
where "ideas are born and dreams become realities."
The 27,000-square-foot facility, located adjacent to the company's
headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., provides UT Automotive with a dedicated
location for developing advanced technologies for its global automotive
customers.
"This new Idea Center demonstrates our commitment and dedication to the
ongoing development of breakthrough technologies for future vehicle
applications," said UT Automotive President Scott Greer. "We intend the new
center to be a place where ideas are born and dreams become realities. It's a
think-space for the unfettered mind."
The Idea Center is designed to break down physical and geographical
barriers to the creative process by eliminating walls, cubicles and dividers.
It is bright and airy, with natural light flooding the facility through
12 skylights and a conical dome that includes a vehicle turntable that allows
360-degree viewing of products, including full-sized cars.
"Our facility offers a physical location where people are encouraged to
dream and develop new ideas that go far beyond our customers' expectations,"
said Ed Buker, president of UT Automotive's Electrical Systems - Americas
organization. "People can dream anywhere. The Idea Center is where dreams
can be turned into realities and ultimately into winning solutions for our
customers worldwide."
Buker said the center also will provide UT Automotive customers with
access to sophisticated technological resources and innovative offerings not
available through any other source.
"It's just one more indication of our company's effort to integrate and
interact with both our suppliers and our customers," he said.
The new two-story facility can accommodate up to 15 vehicles at a time,
with five curtained areas for privacy.
Security is strictly maintained through the use of a card-key entry system
to the Idea Center, and partitioned, isolated work areas inside.
On the first floor, teams can work on exploration programs and perform
prototyping operations. The second floor contains the design center, which is
equipped with computer-aided design (CAD) workstations for advanced product
design and development.
"Today, we are being asked to help car companies create new technologies
for increasingly sophisticated vehicles," Greer said. "The Idea Center offers
an environment that unites our design and engineering teams in a setting that
helps maximize their talents and creativity to produce more, faster and better
transportation solutions."
Ideally positioned for systems integration
Buker said the Idea Center's concept evolved from recognizing the value of
bringing customers together with teams from the company's manufacturing
groups.
With a range of products that includes electrical distribution, electronic
and electromechanical systems and components, as well as interior and exterior
trim products, Buker said UT Automotive is ideally positioned to capitalize on
market opportunities for integrated systems and modules.
"The engineers and designers in the Idea Center will have powerful access
to our company's worldwide personnel resources for expertise," Buker said.
"But of greater importance, the Idea Center teams will enjoy a vision of
utilizing UT Automotive's unsurpassed capabilities for truly integrated
systems manufacturing."
Designed by the Southfield, Mich., architectural firm of Neumann/Smith &
Associates and built by John M. Olson Company, the Idea Center blends
stylistic and functional measures to enhance the creative process. While the
outside architecture presents an image of crisp geometric forms and precise
lines, the interior is punctuated by use of open areas to enhance a sense of
freedom.
A bright, open-air environment
Traditional dark, secluded box-like facilities of the past have been
replaced by a bright, open-aired environment. The Idea Center requires only
one interior column -- one of the many measures taken to ensure the setting's
clearly intended flexibility.
There is 9,300 square feet of clear-spanned space on the first floor,
while the second-floor design studio measures 5,900 square feet. The second-
floor interior level spans the length and width of the structure, leaving the
center area entirely open to create an informal, loft-like environment.
To enhance flexibility, the special furniture and custom-designed curved
partitions used in the center are all on wheels and completely reconfigurable.
The ergonomically friendly building also has a high-tech emphasis. Twenty
CAD stations and virtual reality simulators on the second floor enable
engineers and designers to work with cyber-graphic forms and preview component
functionality.
Support from clay and prototype model makers, vehicle testing and
validation also is addressed in the new building. The facility includes a
dedicated vehicle center, which provides engineering teams with service area
space for breakdown, evaluation and construction of up to 15 vehicles to a
height of 12 feet. And a monoxivent system ensures air quality during engine
operation for up to 10 vehicles.
UT Automotive is a $3 billion tier-one supplier of electrical, electronic
and interior trim systems and components to car and light truck manufacturers.
Based in Dearborn, Mich., the company has 40,000 employees and 90
manufacturing plants in 18 countries.
UT Automotive is a subsidiary of Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies
Corp. , which provides a broad range of high-technology products
and services to the aerospace, building systems and automotive industries.
SOURCE UT Automotive