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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9 3 0 of a production implementation. At the top of its agenda was updating stamp- ing design guidelines and developing the new body shop configuration. It also included a dedicated welding lab equipped with the latest technology installed in Ford’s Pilot Plant in Allen Park, Michigan. Alcan was contracted to supply the material for the X200 AP prototypes from its North American operations. Un- der the leadership of two experienced prototype engineers (Duncan Whipps and Stuart Whiteman) from Jaguar, 35 sets of AIV underbodies were ship- ped to the U.K. in early October. They were swiftly assembled into aluminum replicas of the S-Type and used to de- velop the data necessary for the design of the X350 (Figs. 3 and 4). The next eight months unfolded in a whirl of meetings, intercontinental travel, and repeated video conferences. Materials specifications were further developed, with assumptions and de- sign guidelines clarified. Finally, in June 1999, X350 was approved by the board and the program was now cleared for production. By the end of April 1999, D219 had grown in size and market seg- ment and could no longer be based on P2000. It was now its own platform, which included exports to Europe to replace the discontinued Scorpio. Un- fortunately, the program was over bud- get in both fixed and variable costs. Its survival would depend on finding cost reductions and delivering superb fuel economy. By now, Alcan was deeply en- gaged in developing a strategy to sup- ply X350. Their situation was better than the one faced by Alcoa with Audi in 1992. Without a European footprint, they had attempted to supply 6xxx ABS from the U.S. and found out the pain- ful truth: Stamping plants needed close support and quick reaction times, and that meant a supply source closer to home. Alcoa’s solution had been to ap- proach Lonza, Alusuisse’s parent com- pany, with an offer to the aluminum company. The proposal was initially well received, with talks progressing to the point where key personnel started planning their moves to Sierre, Swit- zerland. Unfortunately, everything fell apart when Paul O’Neill, Alcoa’s CEO, refused to assume the environmental liability of the closed smelter in near- by Chippis. The A8 ABS supply went to Alusuisse, and Alcoa found itself out of the European ABS business. In contrast, Alcan had a strong presence in Europe and their Nachterstedt plant was on track to supply the 5xxx ABS. The is- sue was that it might not be qualified in time to supply outer quality 6111 alloy for the skins. We do not know if it affected Al- can’s calculus, but on August 11, 1999, they announced a deal to buy Alusuisse and Pechiney—forming the largest alu- minum company in the world. The next day, Alcoa announced that it would buy Reynolds Metals Company. Learn what happened next in Part IX of this article series, to be published in a future issue of AM&P. ~AM&P For more information: Laurent Chap- puis, president, Light Metal Consultants LLC, 8600 Church Rd., Grosse Ile, MI 48138, lbchappuis@icloud.com. Selected References Alusuisse: Peter Furrer, VP of development, mar- keting and sales for automotive (retired) Corrado Bassi, manager of automotive development (retired) Alcan: Mike Kelly (retired) Jaguar: Mark White, chief technical specialist lightweight structures (retired) Carl Dixon, lead, body structures engi- neering (retired) Jim Harper, former lead tooling engi- neer, now press tooling technical man- ager, Jaguar Land Rover Duncan Whipps, former senior manu- facturing engineer, Jaguar Cars, now design engineering supervisor, Ford Motor Company Ford: Joe Porcari, retired Gaining Insight into Aluminum Produc- tion, by Kazuhiko Tsunoda, Honda R&R Co., Ltd., presented at AM-OSAT Auto- motive Management Briefing Seminar, Traverse City, Mich., August 2000. EAA 2013 Aluminium Automotive Manual. For information on new aluminum resources from ASM, see page 8 in this issue.