From the CBOX to kinematic components: 25 years of fischer automotive systems
Found in millions of carsWhat began with the storage of music cassettes eventually developed into an international success: 25 years after entering the market, the number of cars in which fischer components make for convenience and order goes into the millions.
 “fischer installs the king of the cup holders in the rear of the Maybach”, reported Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) recently. But special holders for champagne bottles and trays for champagne glasses are one thing, useful storage options for everyday motoring are another: whether trays or ashtrays, can holders or spectacle trays – the product range supplied by fischer makes life on the road easier.
The manufacturer of a patented audio storage archive (fischerCBOX) became a specialist in world-wide demand for storage and convenience components for the interiors. fischer automotive systems GmbH of Horb am Neckar has for quite some time not only developed, produced and marketed cassette and CD boxes, but also complex equipment components – SpiegelOnline (20 September 2007) called the cup holder in the Mercedes SL “an incredibly delicate work of art made of 46 individual parts”.
Among the customers are major carmakers in Europe, the USA and Asia; “current” products include kinematic components (for instance the CD player in the BMW Mini and for the multimedia display in the C Class Mercedes). Folding tables and ventilation nozzles are also found among fischer’s repertoire.
Bid award for Klaus Fischer
 The history: In October 1981 a Swiss inventor had placed an ad in the German VDI-Nachrichten engineering specialist magazine in which he looked for a “suitably equipped medium-sized injection moulding plant”. In spite of the huge response to the ad, it was Klaus Fischer, owner and CEO of the group of companies of the same name who got the award. He then secured the world-wide rights of use for the production and marketing of what came to be known as CBOX.
After BASF, which had already marketed the box for home use, the car industry also began to show interest in the convenient music archive. The first customer was BMW, and once the launch had been a success there without any hitches, the CBOX soon became a must: Ford, Opel, VW, Audi, Daimler-Benz and Porsche soon followed and installed the new product in their cars. By the mid eighties, business with GM, Chrysler and Ford began to take off on the other side of the Atlantic.
But, to gain a foothold in the USA, fischer needed to produce there. So the search began in 1999 for production capacity near Detroit. A new development and production site opened in November 2000 in Auburn Hills, and fischer America started into the new millennium with three contracts for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. The Chrysler contract alone (through Magna) had an annual production volume of 825,000 cup holders.
 On 15 May the same year, construction work for the new automotive domicile began in Horb (Freudenstadt district in Germany), not quite ten kilometres away from fischer’s headquarters in Waldachtal. Production started about a year later. Before that, the 180 German employees of the business division has been spread over four different sites. Also, the boom in sales and a major contract from Daimler paid dividends on the 25 million Euro investment.
With a few exceptions, the full product development process of fischer automotive takes place at the Horben plant: from the concept stage and development via prototyping, design and toolmaking right through to production, assembly and logistics. A newspaper described the growth of the fischer division: “The dynamic motion of the components is reflected in the whole of the business division” (Automobil Industrie, August 2002).
Model production
 Next to the sites in Horb and in Ivanovice in the Czech Republic, fas products are also made Auburn Hills and Taicang to meet the demand in the USA and in Asia. Following the Toyota model, the fischer ProcessSystem introduced in all sites and locations aims for continuous improvements, for empowered employees, strong processes and JIT principles.
Production at Horb is seen as exemplary; certifications and audits at regular intervals guarantee the quality standards of car makers. BASF’s CEO Jürgen Hambrecht called the plant “one of the most efficient in the whole of the automotive industry”, with praise also coming from Porsche, currently the world’s most profitable car maker. Eberhard Weiblen, director of Porsche Consulting GmbH, described the fischer division as “model business” and said: “The just-in-time production system and the structure of the factory are exemplary”.
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