GHSP saw future, put stamping in past

History was in the air last year when GHSP, a 90-year-old west Michigan automotive metal stamping supplier, pulled the last stamping press out of its Grand Haven manufacturing site.

The global supplier industry is churning with mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and new product strategies, and GHSP is at it, too: The company is transitioning from mechanical parts to advanced technology.

The Grand Haven plant now is producing electronic assemblies. In August, it ratcheted up the transition by opening a technical center also in the city. The center houses a newly established "innovation team" of 20 who are tasked with designing and testing new technologies.

GHSP, a portfolio company of Grand Haven's JSJ Corp., now produces mechanical and mechatronic systems, such as automatic-transmission and shift-by-wire shifters. GHSP also supplies powertrain electronics, such as electronic oil and water pumps, and interior electronics, such as wireless phone chargers. At the 2018 CES show in Las Vegas, GHSP debuted its Haptics Shifter, which allows drivers control through gestures.

IMG01RIndustry change hasn't come as a surprise to the old manufacturer. The roots of its evolution go back to the early 1990s, said Marc Smeyers, GHSP chief technology officer. GHSP began diversifying from traditional metal stamping then, when it picked up on the idea of industry lightweighting, he told Automotive News.

At that time, GHSP began incorporating injection-molded plastic linkages into its auto shifters, which traditionally used metal linkages. In 2004, GHSP acquired the electronic controls systems company KDS Controls Inc. to position for what the supplier saw coming next.

"GHSP had seen some of the early shift-by-wire controls coming," Smeyers said. "We didn't have all the full electronic assembly competencies yet. So that was a strategic decision for us, to realize that mechanical systems were going to be replaced by electronic control systems and make the acquisition of KDS."

Thanks partly to expanding into new technologies, GHSP's revenue has quadrupled over the last decade, Smeyers said. Customers now include Honda, Toyota, Nissan and others, in addition to the Detroit 3, and business has gone international. Smeyers says 75 percent of GHSP's automotive business is now dedicated to electronics production, although he declined to provide sales figures. GHSP's employee count also has doubled over the last decade to about 2,000 worldwide. In addition to two manufacturing sites in Michigan, it now has plants in Mexico and China and sales centers in Germany, Mexico, China and Japan.

The 7,000-square-foot Grand Haven tech center will play an increased role in the years ahead. The innovation team will handle electronic design, embedded software and mechanical and engineering design work.

The innovation team is "able to conceptualize ideas coming from technology in terms of both the market trends and our customers' immediate needs," Smeyers said. "This team is a dedicated group that has been partitioned off separate from our launch teams to service that."

The technical center has a collaboration space for brainstorming and storyboarding; fabrication spaces to tests concepts; and an office space with an open environment.

Having a dedicated innovation center will help the company continue to adapt to an evolving industry, the executive said.

"GHSP continues to re-innovate and redefine itself," Smeyers said. "The innovation function is really what we're focused on — being a technology supply company to our customers and to multiple markets."