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43 AutoData | July 2018 se two aspects: the automakers stopped making a huge contingent of components internally, delegating this responsibility to third companies, in the form of recei- ving full automotive systems, but did not give up some things, such as engines, for example, and did not completely delivered the assembly process, although in many cases much of it occurs in the form of di- rect works of the systems suppliers inside the factory. It is also good to remember that Brazil is the main exponent of the systems sup- pliers’ birth with the inauguration, in 1996, of the Volkswagen Trucks and Buses fac- tory in Resende, RJ, the pioneer inworking within the modular consortium concept. NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE The concept of systems suppliers today has become so vast that it is very difficult to define exactly which and how many they are. Frédéric Sebbagh, President and CEO of Continental, tries to summarize: “Sys- tems suppliers are companies that do not only manufacture auto parts, but also groups of components that operate to- gether to fulfill a specific function in the vehicle”. In other words: every auto parts manufacturer that provides a... system. But there are systems that fit into lar- ger systems, and even these fit into even larger ones. Within this complex concept one single company can act as a systems supplier for the automaker, as a supplier for another systems supplier or even as a systems supplier for another systems supplier - everything at the same time. To complicate it there are systems su- ppliers that have their own suppliers to manufacture their systems, while others do it by producing everything internally, depending on the specialty. Both, at least technically, are systems suppliers. To calculate exactly the volume of sys- tems suppliers acting in Brazil, therefore, is an inglorious task. For Carlos Abdalla, Bosch Latin America’s marketing, com- munications and institutional relations manager, “it’s hard to talk about numbers because there are many different types of suppliers acting in the domestic automo- tive industry”. Bosch itself has a large supplier chain with more than three hundred suppliers to produce its automotive systems. Continental, on the other hand, does not reveal the number of suppliers, but the volume of systems that the company produces offers a good idea of its great- ness: fuel injection systems, brakes, elec- tronics, chassis, infotainment, suspension and more. For the same reason is also difficult to calculate sales and billing indexes of sys- tems suppliers separately. But Sindipeças’s statistics bring at least one important part: Auto parts: evolution of the revenue in 2017. From suppliers to systems suppliers To manufacturers To exports (US$) Overall average To aftermarket + 20% + 33% + 13% + 9% Source: Sindipeças