“We are seeing the evolution of BorgWarner’s experience with Tauber. We are now seeing what real value these students can deliver,” said John McGill, VP, Chief Procurement Officer, BorgWarner Inc.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- One of the most successful partnerships on the University of Michigan campus just might be the one between the Tauber Institute and its two dozen global sponsoring organizations. This collaboration brings the best and brightest engineering and business minds together with industry-leading companies to provide solutions to real world challenges.

BorgWarner, Inc. has been a long-time supporter of Tauber summer internships, sponsoring 11 projects in the past six years – eight of those in just the last three years. As such, the company annually welcomes sponsored teams to present their findings to BorgWarner executives. Recently, the 2010 Tauber/BorgWarner teams did just that to rave reviews -- and a few winches -- from top brass.

CEO Tim Manganello said that BorgWarner has benefitted greatly from its relationship with Tauber, and though the teams’ findings are not always easy to hear, he is grateful for the insight and examination of his company’s inner workings. “If you shine a light on something, it gets fixed,” he said. Manganello also said the student projects challenge BorgWarner supervisors to find ways to keep the momentum going and sustain projects after the teams have moved on.

What They Found:

The Tauber team of Andrew Burgess, MBA/Eng ’10, and Ben Don, EGL ’10, travelled across the globe for BorgWarner, starting in Michigan and winding through plants in China, India and Europe. They visited these locations to gain an understanding of the state of the current BorgWarner Turbo Systems supply chain, determine constraints within the supply chain, and to assess the feasibility of any recommendations that they made. The pair’s detailed analysis allowed them to formulate best practice methodologies for optimizing future packaging and shipping of BorgWarner turbo charger housings. Their recommendations are expected to save the division more than $1 million annually and their suggested methodologies can also be applied to other divisions within BorgWarner. (Their results earned third place in the Tauber Spotlight competition last September.)

Three additional teams also spent 14-weeks last summer working on specific issues and challenges for BorgWarner. They were:

• Pui Yeen Lai, EGL and Raghav Wate, MBA who recommended lean management principles across BorgWarner’s Turbo Shaft and Wheel division in Hungary;
• Saurabh Basu, EGP and Tracie Teo, EGL, who designed an automated injection molding cell for BorgWarner Thermal Systems in Markdorf, Germany; and,
• Abhijit Dayal, MSCM, Anup Pradkar, EGP, and Sarah Poglits, MBA, who developed a flexible manufacturing strategy to reduce changeover time, improve assembly and streamline production at the Fletcher, NC plant.

The success of the summer project teams at BorgWarner is making an impact. The employees at the various locations look forward to the fresh perspective the students bring, according to Manganello, and high-ranking executives are taking notice of the Tauber effect in their own divisions.