Strategic Supply Chain Management - Supply Chain Online

Autoliv Profile:
Applying Rocket Science
to the Supply Chain
Through rapid growth and acquisitions, Autoliv captured a third of the
global airbag market. But constant price pressure from the automakers
and the economic slowdown of the late 1990s stretched the company’s
supply chain to the breaking point.
Stockholm-based Autoliv is the world’s largest manufacturer of auto safety
systems. The company operates in 30 countries, developing and producing
airbags, seatbelts, safety electronics, antiwhiplash seats, and related safety
systems and components for all the major automotive makers worldwide.
Autoliv employs 35,000 people and posts annual sales in excess of $4 billion.
Autoliv’s current global operation was created in 1997 by the merger
of Autoliv AB of Sweden, then Europe’s leading automotive safety company,
and U.S.-based Morton ASP, the largest airbag manufacturer in
North America and Asia. Innovation is Autoliv’s hallmark. From its pioneering
work in seatbelts in the 1950s to the first antisliding airbags
launched in 2002—to keep drivers from slipping down under the dashboard
in a head-on crash—Autoliv is responsible for nearly every major
innovation in automotive safety systems.
During the 1990s, the business units that now make up Autoliv prospered
as safety became a strong selling feature in the minds of car buyers.
Led by the marketing strategies of Volvo and Chrysler and then driven by
government regulations, airbags evolved from a luxury item in high-end
vehicles to standard equipment for nearly every car on the road. Autoliv
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