In the 2022 Top 100 Global Auto Parts Suppliers list published by Automotive News on June 27, Yanfeng has globally ranked 16th with consolidated sales of US$13.757 billion, up one place from the previous year, and continued to maintain its lead as a top Chinese auto parts supplier.

The global automotive market will be full of challenges in 2022, and various suppliers are striving to recover their performance. The sales revenue of the top 30 companies increased by an average of 11.6 percent over the same period last year, and six companies had negative growth. Yanfeng achieved a year-over-year sales revenue growth of 12.9 percent which was higher than the aforementioned average. In terms of new business development, Yanfeng won more than 800 new programs throughout the year from the company's global customers. 

The improved ranking, along with the company's recent A- CDP rating, showcases Yanfeng's continued advancement and progress in alignment with the company's sustainability strategy. In 2022, the company will advance its new business acquisitions, product innovation, digital transformation, and global collaboration.

Ratings focus on Yanfeng’s performance, as well as engagement of supply base

– Leading global automotive supplier, Yanfeng recently received an A minus rating from CDP on the company’s performance on Climate Change. In addition, Yanfeng also received an A rating on Supplier Engagement. CDP is a not-for-profit that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states, and regions to manage their environmental impacts.

To receive its rating, the company completed a questionnaire focused on the areas of business strategy and financial planning; value chain engagement; targets; emission reduction initiatives; Scope 1, 2 emissions; Scope 3 emissions; energy; governance; opportunity disclosure as well as risk disclosure and risk management processes.

Yanfeng began reporting several years ago and has substantially improved its rating. It also is a leader amongst peer companies in our industry.

In addition to Yanfeng’s corporate performance rating, the company was also recently notified of its Supplier Engagement rating of A. This rating puts the company in the Leadership Band amongst its peers. CDP evaluates organizations' engagement with their suppliers on climate change. By evaluating supplier engagement and recognizing best practices, CDP aims to accelerate global action on supply chain emissions.

“Sustainability in all areas of our business is a core part of Yanfeng’s strategy. Not only does Yanfeng focus on our own performance in this area, but we also closely monitor the performance of our supply base and regularly engage with them,” said Gerald Jia, CEO, Yanfeng. “We are proud of what the team has accomplished and our CDP ratings.”

In the area of climate reduction, Yanfeng has commitments in multiple areas. The company has a sustainability roadmap with goals related to Corporate Carbon Footprint Scopes 1, 2, and 3, which can be found in its most recent Corporate Social Responsibility Report. In addition, Yanfeng conducts a Risk and Opportunity Assessment that has Emission Reduction Targets for each region and has increased its use of renewable energy sources.

Currently, all locations in Europe are powered by renewable energy, with other regions increasing their use as well. In addition, Yanfeng has started work on six additional solar panel projects with the company’s partners globally to produce energy at its plants. The first project in Neustadt, Germany recently launched.

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About CDP

CDP is a global environmental impact non-profit, providing a platform for companies, cities, states, and regions to report information on their climate, deforestation and water security impacts. The global economy looks to CDP as the gold standard of environmental reporting, and we hold the world’s richest and most comprehensive dataset on how companies, cities, states and regions measure, understand and address their environmental impacts. We aim to make environmental reporting mainstream, providing the detailed insights and analysis to drive the urgent action needed for a climate-safe, deforestation-free and water-secure world.

MacKenzie Gibson and Priya Gurumurthy honored for their contributions to the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Two Yanfeng employees were recognized at the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion and Advancement’s (CADIA) Impact Awards ceremony last Friday. Innovation Engineer MacKenzie Gibson was awarded the 2021 CADIA Impact Award in the category of Creating Inclusive Cultures and Director of IT Priya Gurumurthy was recognized as one of the runners-up for the Leadership Commitment Award. Both employees were nominated by Yanfeng’s Diversity & Inclusion Group to celebrate their outstanding leadership and commitment to championing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the company. Yanfeng is a corporate member of CADIA.

“CADIA has been an invaluable partner to us over the last two years,” said Laurie Bylsma, Executive Director of Human Resources. “Nominating members of our team was a way for us to recognize their individual contributions and remind ourselves how much our Diversity & Inclusion Group has accomplished. We’re committed to championing diversity and creating an inclusive culture at Yanfeng and it’s through the efforts of employees like MacKenzie and Priya that we see that progress.”

Gibson, who earned a degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University, has been with Yanfeng since 2017. Beginning her career with the company as an intern, Gibson was hired as an Electrical Innovation Engineer following her graduation in 2020.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by CADIA alongside the incredible individuals who are making an impact in their companies and in our industry,” said Gibson. “I’m so grateful for Yanfeng’s Diversity and Inclusion Group and the platform it’s become for me to continue to learn, educate, and grow alongside other passionate diversity champions.”

As a member of Yanfeng’s Diversity & Inclusion Group (DIG), Gibson has invested her time and talents on a volunteer basis. Contributions such as her founding of the Yanfeng Book Club, supporting and developing materials for internal “TEDTalk” discussions, and coordinating volunteer events are all ways she has championed a culture of inclusivity that celebrates others’ differences. Over the last year, through the book club, Gibson has curated books each month for employees that feature diverse authors and stories, leading discussions that dive into the experiences, themes, and teachings of each novel. Recently, Gibson extended her love of reading to others through a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Detroit (BBBS). The goal of the program is to help kids with their reading comprehension and help them fall in love with reading. She and other Yanfeng colleagues meet twice a month for an hour with these students to read and discuss their book selections.

This fall, Gibson prepared an especially personal story advocating for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. As someone who personally experiences hearing impairment, she was not only willing to prepare informational materials but share her testimony in hopes of educating her colleagues to practice empathy and look for opportunities to continue making Yanfeng a more inclusive place.

IT Director Priya Gurumurthy was one of the 2021 runners-up to the Leadership Commitment Impact Award and was recognized at the CADIA luncheon and award ceremony for her contributions and efforts. Gurumurthy is the Affinity Chair of Yanfeng’s Women’s Resource Network (WRN), a subset of Yanfeng’s DIG, leading initiatives and strategy that focuses on the organization’s opportunities for women.

Yanfeng, a leading global automotive supplier, recently released proprietary research conducted by its global User Research team, which examines passenger experiences during the ride-hailing journey. The study, conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, included participants from China and the U.S., offering insights into the factors that influence the passenger experience. The findings concluded that the ride-hailing experience is nuanced, consisting of 13 steps within three main phases: before, during and after the ride.

Summary of the Ride-Hailing Journey

"People's perception of ride-sharing is not as simple as a five-star review," said Senior Analyst, Global User Research Cathy Bailey, the study's lead. "The ride-sharing experience isn't just one simple equation – it's the sum of its parts. If any of these phases fall short, a passenger's positive perception of the experience will dwindle. That becomes a threat to any service provider looking to create a brand loyal customer base, especially as we anticipate the landscape to become more and more service-oriented."

The Yanfeng team found that the six steps with the greatest opportunities for improvement within the entire 13-step journey include hailing the ride on the phone, waiting for the ride, building trust and rapport, permission to make vehicle your own, the main part of the ride and preparing for the end of the ride. These six steps are transition times that are critical to ridehailers and are currently pain points with room for improvement.

The top ride-hailing use case scenarios reported in the research included going out, commuting to work, and running errands. During these scenarios, passengers used their time to relax, accomplish tasks, or engage throughout the ride. Passenger's use cases and preferences varied by region.

In China, ride-sharing was used more frequently overall and provided a time for passengers to relax. The study also noted that trip durations in China are longer, often exceeding 20 minutes. Comparatively, U.S. passengers on average took shorter and less frequent trips, using their ride time to engage with others. Both countries – 76% of China users and 73% of U.S. users – reported "going out" as the top reason for using rideshare services, closely followed by "commute to work" at 73% for China users and "running errands" at 58% for U.S. users.

Ultimately, the findings allow for an increased understanding of passenger expectations and needs during the ride-hail experience. "Before starting the study, we spent a significant amount of time familiarizing ourselves with what ride-sharing research was currently available. From our findings, we still were not getting a clear sense of what end-users perceived of the entire ride-sharing experience," says Beth McGough, Senior Manager, Global User Research. "That led us to conduct our own study. Understanding the stages the user goes through during the ride-hailing journey, how a user evaluates each stage, and how they prefer to spend their time is key to redesigning not only the ride-hailing experience, but reassessing how vehicles are optimized for the general passenger experience."

For automotive manufacturers, suppliers, and ride-hailing service providers, these insights serve as a guide to assess the functional integrations and features of the vehicle – an opportunity to offer users greater value and build brand affinity depending on how their needs are met.

"The current interior experience is focused on the driver, but the passenger's comfort and wellbeing are equally important. With the popularity of ride-sharing, we now have a large pool of users to survey," says Tim Shih, Yanfeng's VP of Design and User Experience. "As paying passengers, rideshare customers tend to be objective when evaluating their in-car experience (vs. their personally owned vehicles) and frequently compare these factors across different vehicle types."

By understanding the user's perspective, better onboard experiences can be cultivated for all passengers. With autonomous driving in the near future, the passenger experience will be the only onboard experience. Yanfeng's Smart Cabin vision is actively exploring solutions for today's and tomorrow's passenger needs.

User and Market Research

The findings of this ride-hailing research are complemented by Yanfeng's Quality of Life (QoL) study. In this study, Yanfeng explored the dimensions that impact people's perception of memorable experiences. The significance of the QoL and the Ride-Hailing study is the algorithmic nature of their insights. When analyzed side-by-side, automotive manufacturers, suppliers, and ride-hailing service providers can emphasize experiential functions and features at the key points of the passenger's journey to influence user's perception of their time in-vehicle.

Read more about the 'Quality of Life' research study.

Yanfeng has advanced its user research methods to involve current and potential future groups along with market trend research, target group research, brand perception research, interior product analysis, and new concept test research. The company integrates critical findings into the product development process by partnering with design teams to build intuitive solutions that are simple for users to understand and operate.

XiM21s

The results of this research contributed to the design and development of the company's Smart Cabin concept car Experience in Motion 2021s (XiM21s). The passenger-focused interior concept, XiM21s, was recently honored with a Red Dot Design Concept Award in the category "Mobility and Transportation" for demonstrating how integrated technology can create an intuitive and customized environment tailored to the end users' needs and expectations. Experience the XiM21s interior on Yanfeng's YouTube channel.

Today, Yanfeng celebrated the renaming of its seating business at the company’s seating headquarters in Shanghai. Zang Chungao, GM of Yanfeng Seating officially announced that Yanfeng Adient Seating Co., Ltd. has been renamed Yanfeng International Seating Systems Co., Ltd., This event also marks the completion of the equity transaction between Yanfeng and Adient for the seating business.

With 24 years of experience in the seating business, Yanfeng is the complete seat leader in China, covering virtually all domestic mainstream automakers. Its seating business unit has grown to include locations in nine countries, on four continents with 16,000 employees. The change in equity will further enhance Yanfeng's comprehensive service capabilities and market influence in the global automotive seating field, and better provide global customers with one-stop automotive seating solutions and full cabin solutions.

“Seating is one of Yanfeng’s core business strengths,” said Gerald Jia, CEO of Yanfeng. “The share repurchase will help us achieve cross-business and cross-regional synergy on a global scale, making Yanfeng a company with cross-business innovation and integration. It also solidifies us as a supplier capable of meeting future mobility trends and ever-changing market needs."

Currently, Yanfeng has established seating R&D and manufacturing capabilities in countries including Germany, Serbia, North America, Mexico, and Japan. In the future, Yanfeng plans to form a global seat supply chain and a fully globalized seat business.
 

Yanfeng, a leading global automotive supplier, has been honored with a Red Dot Design Concept Award in the category “Mobility and Transportation" for its Smart Cabin concept car Experience in Motion 2021s (XiM21s). This passenger-focused interior concept debuted in Shanghai and demonstrates how technology integration can create an intuitive and customized environment tailored to consumers’ needs and requirements. All production-ready solutions are available for the next generation of vehicles.

“We are proud to be part of the largest professional design concept competition in the world. Receiving this award for our XiM21s is an acknowledgement of Yanfeng’s creativity and design excellence. It also is a great great honor and recognition for our global teams,” said Tim Shih, Vice President Design and User Experience at Yanfeng Technology.

By combining physical features with digital intelligence, Yanfeng has enhanced interactions between occupants and the vehicle itself. With fully integrated smart surfaces and reconfigurable touch displays, the XiM21s offers passengers an infinitely adaptable space and unique on-board experience, whether the vehicle is used for ridesharing or personal use. Thanks to integrated sensors, the Smart Cabin automatically adjusts the interior ambience through climate, scent, audio, and lighting. UV-light sanitizes surfaces, immersive entertainment engages, and advanced comfort features fulfill passengers’ evolving needs and expectations. In-depth user research conducted by the company helped define which technologies and features should be included and how they should be integrated.

“In this new era of mobility, the way users connect with their vehicles and each other will demand greater flexibility and deeper technology integration, allowing passengers to escape their everyday and enabling cars to deliver an entirely new type of Experience in Motion,” said Han Hendriks, Chief Technology Officer at Yanfeng Technology.

This year, a total of 4,110 entries from 49 countries were submitted. The Red Dot Design Concept was awarded to 259 concepts. Only eight percent of the entries were awarded a Red Dot. The Mobility and Transportation category’s Design Concept awards accept design concepts for products, services or communication designs that are not already mass-produced and sold in the market at the time of submission to the competition. This year’s award ceremony will be hosted virtually in October.

This is the second time Yanfeng has received this prestigious design recognition. In 2019, the company’s XiM20 Smart Cabin concept was also recognized with a Red Dot Design Concept Award.

Experience the vehicle interior of XiM21s on Yanfeng's YouTube channel at the following link:
https://youtu.be/FmvRzYwm3p0

Yanfeng, a leading global automotive supplier, virtually hosted its annual Supplier Awards during its Supplier Expectations Day event, recognizing 38 suppliers from North America (17 suppliers) and Europe (21 suppliers) with awards in various categories.   

The most important rating criteria for the awards were quality, cost, logistics, development, diversity, technology, and service. Depending on their total rating, suppliers were recognized as Supplier of the Year, Distinguished Supplier, or awarded for their supplier excellence.

The operational challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic were a prevalent theme in the messages shared by Yanfeng leadership at this year’s ceremony. The event spotlighted the hard work and consistent efforts of the companies across Yanfeng’s supplier-base.

"It’s important for us to recognize our top suppliers and their teams for their dedication over the past year. For us, they are important partners, who play a decisive role in our success to deliver and exceed our customers’ expectations. There’s no denying the challenges our industry continues to face but taking this time to show our appreciation is more critical now than ever after the year we’ve gone through together," said James Bos, Vice President Global Procurement at Yanfeng.

The 2021 award recipients from North America and Europe were: 

Supplier of the Year Award: 

• Total Research & Technology Feluy, Belgium

Distinguished Supplier Award: 

• Acoustek Nonwovens, Statesville, North Carolina 
• A&K Finishing, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan 
• Derby Fabricating Solutions, LLC, Louisville, Kentucky 
• GDC, Inc., Goshen, Indiana  
• Nanogate North America, LLC, Mansfield, Ohio 
• Portland Products, Inc., Portland, Michigan 
• TR Fastenings, Houston, Texas 
• VU Manufacturing, Troy, Michigan 
• INDUSTRIAS GARITA S.L., Spain
• Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., Poland

Supplier Excellence Award – Technology and Innovation: 

• NextInput Inc., Mountain View, California 
• I.G. BAUERHIN GMBH, Germany
• Varitronix GmbH/ BOE Varitronix Limited, Germany
• SemsoTec GmbH, Germany
• conTeyor International nv., Belgium

Supplier Excellence Award – Customer Satisfaction: 

• Molex, LLC, Bollingbrook, Illinois 
• Multitech Industries, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 
• Ryder Logistics, Novi, Michigan 
• ANGEL RUIZ IBANEZ S.A., Spain
• ECA N.V., Belgium
• Vogel GmbH Kunststofftechnik, Germany
• S4 INTEGRATION, South Africa
• Suzhou Keber Precision Machinery Co.,Ltd., China
• Christian Karl Siebenwurst GmbH & Co. KG, Germany
• SF Moldes S.A., Portugal

 Supplier Excellence Award – Service: 

• DSSI, LLC, Farmington Hills, Michigan 
• Hitop Mold Industrial Co., LTD., GuangDong, China 
• JSR Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico 
• Polymer Packaging, Inc., Allendale, Michigan 
• Synventive Molding Solutions, Livonia, Michigan 
• DSSI International, LCC, Slovakia
• Industrias Alegre S.A., Spain
• STEBAL spedition, s. r. o., Czech Republic
• Synventive Molding Solutions GmbH, Germany
• Nieten Internationale Spedition, s.r.o., Czech Republic

 Supplier Excellence Award – Diversity: 

• Multitech Industries, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois  

 Supplier Excellence Award – Quality: 

• J.H.Ziegler Magyarorszag Kft., Hungary

 Supplier Excellence Award – Sustainability: 

• BASF Polyurethanes GmbH, Germany

Company also announces additional equity share and controlling interest changes to other joint ventures it holds with Adient in China 

Yanfeng today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Adient to acquire Adient Asia’s 49.99 percent share in the Yanfeng Adient Seating Co, Ltd (YFAS) joint venture in China. As part of this agreement, Yanfeng takes full ownership of the joint venture and all 16,000 employees, 55 seat manufacturing facilities, a full-service technical center and JARC (headliner company). Current and sourced future programs will transition to Yanfeng.  

Established in 1997, YFAS has developed independent and complete R&D and manufacturing systems in automotive seating with a wide range of OEM customers. Its products cover complete seats, frames, foam, and headliners. 

“We believe that making YFAS a wholly-owned entity of Yanfeng further enhances our capabilities and product offering not only in seating but as a full-service supplier through cross-business collaboration,” said Gerald Jia, CEO of Yanfeng. “In the future, the three seating technical centers in Shanghai, Hefei, and Chongqing will join Yanfeng’s existing global innovation and engineering network to offer product and innovation synergies including Interiors, Seating, Safety, and Cockpit Electronics. At the same time, YFAS’ manufacturing locations in China, along with Yanfeng's existing seat manufacturing bases in Thailand, Serbia, and Mexico, will be consolidated to form a complete seat supply capacity and to make it a fully globalized business.”  

Additional components of the transaction include equity share and controlling interest changes to other joint ventures held by Yanfeng and Adient in China. However, Yanfeng will continue its current JV relationship (Keiper) with Adient in mechanisms. Keiper is a consolidated entity under Yanfeng, focusing on seat mechanism components.  

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed in six months. During this period, Yanfeng will maintain close cooperation with Adient to ensure the smooth transition of the business and the continuity of program execution and delivery and to fully committed to offering one-stop Smart Cabin solutions to global customers. 

Yanfeng was recently awarded the GOOD DESIGN® Award for touchFC floor console concept in the Transportation category.

Yanfeng, one of the world's leading automotive suppliers, has won a GOOD DESIGN® Award for the floor console concept, touchFC. This is the second year in a row that Yanfeng has been awarded in the competition’s Transportation Category, winning last year with the rideshare interior demonstrator, the Experience in Motion 2020 (XiM20).   

GOOD DESIGN remains the oldest and the world’s most recognized program for design excellence. In November, the 70th annual GOOD DESIGN jury selected over 900 product designs and graphics from over 48 nations representing the best consumer designs of the year.

touchFC demonstrates how interiors must evolve in both the features they offer and the way people will interact with them.

“Advanced driver assist systems and autonomous driving require greater flexibility in the interior,” said Han Hendriks, Chief Technology Officer for Yanfeng Technology. “In these use cases, the floor console is the most accessible interface, not the instrument panel as it is traditionally. touchFC acts as a functional hub, combining UV sanitization, smart surfaces, and storage with unique, experiential elements, like the dragonfly-inspired armrests.”

As the interior plays a more critical role in how users assess vehicle valuation and perceived experience, Yanfeng is committed to understanding these expectations and refining its Smart Cabin vision and strategy to meet user needs.

Surface & Air Sanitization

To help keep the interior disinfected, touchFC includes UV and ionized air sanitizers. The air vent that serves the second row at the back of touchFC has an ionizer integrated to purify the air, absorbing dust, bacteria, and viruses. Below the air vent, also serving the second row, an electric storage box containing a UV sanitizer, which activates when closed, killing bacteria and viruses on the items stored inside. Both the air vent and storage are operated by controls built within the Crystal Deco, a durable smart surface material that gives touchFC a high-tech look and feel that is also easy to disinfect without worrying about damaging the finish.

Intuitive Interaction

The integrated and intuitive Smart Button allows occupants to adjust the floor console’s signature armrest for greater comfort. A designated phone docking station has also been integrated at the front of the touchFC for wireless charging and to keep personal devices accessible. At the end of the journey, the mobile phone is raised automatically out of the charging port for easy access, and as a reminder to not leave the device in the vehicle

Personalized, Flexible Spaces

The under-console storage was the direct result of past user studies which indicated an unmet need for storing larger personal items, like a bag or purse. In addition to making storage available up front, an easily accessible electric storage box was included to serve second-row passengers so that they too could securely stow belongings.

Images are available under www.yfai.com/en/media-center.

Yanfeng Automotive Interiors (YFAI) recently received the Toyota Value Improvement Award 2019 from Toyota Motor North America.

YFAI was honored with the Value Improvement Award which recognizes supplier performance in meeting general and individual targets for design and manufacturing improvements that result in mutually beneficial cost savings and value improvements.

Yanfeng Automotive Interiors (YFAI) recently received the Toyota Value Improvement Award 2019 from Toyota Motor North America.

YFAI was honored with the Value Improvement Award which recognizes supplier performance in meeting general and individual targets for design and manufacturing improvements that result in mutually beneficial cost savings and value improvements.

“Receiving the Value Improvement Award from Toyota is an honor for the Yanfeng team,” said David Wang, Vice President and Deputy General Manager, North America for Yanfeng Automotive Interiors. “This award underscores Yanfeng’s commitment to supplying Toyota globally and our mission of being our customers’ preferred partner for automotive interior solutions.”

Yanfeng supplies interior components for Toyota in North America, China, and Japan. Vehicles the company supplies include the Toyota Alphard, Avalon, Camry, Highlander, RAV4, Sienna, Sequoia, Tacoma, Tundra, 4-Runner, as well as the Lexus ES, NX, and RX.