Flexible Pipe Development Case for Honda

With the rapid development of the domestic automotive market, competition has become increasingly fierce, and demands for cost control and supply timeliness have grown stronger. "Localized procurement" has become a strategic direction for major overseas automakers, and Honda's localized strategy has thus emerged—Honda began seeking cooperative suppliers for various auto parts. As a manufacturer with years of experience in producing flexible pipe, caught the attention of Honda's procurement team. Our capabilities in independently developing specialized equipment, molds, jigs, and gauges, along with its comprehensive quality assurance system, gained recognition from Honda's procurement team.

The project was initiated in July 2005, and the development of flexible hoses began. After a series of development work including mold design, sample production, and testing & verification, the flexible pipe passed all performance tests. We were officially designated as the supplier of flexible pipe, and since then, we have obtained the qualification to supply flexible pipe to Honda. Later, through the mass production preparation work for various vehicle models—such as phased quality verification, production capacity verification, PFMEA, control plan, and verification of historical defects—Hexin passed Honda's Safety Declaration and was approved for mass production.

"By optimizing the corrugated structure, the durability of the flexible pipe was enhanced, with the fatigue life test exceeding 1 million cycles; their elasticity and rigidity met the design requirements. Through precise control of the outer pipe installation, the tensile performance requirements of the flexible pipe assembly were ensured.

To meet the elasticity requirements of the flexible pipe assembly, the flexibility of the double-lock was precisely controlled, achieving breakthroughs in key technical indicators such as flexibility, extensibility, and the elimination of abnormal noise."

Our OE flexible Pipe are applied to major Honda models, including Odyssey, Crosstour, CR-V, UR-V, Avancier, Vezel, and Accord.

* Design and manufacturing of tooling and gauges;

* Design, development and manufacturing of specialized equipment for production capacity improvement;

* Performance testing and verification of various products (including fatigue testing, welding strength testing, rigidity testing, corrosion resistance testing, airtightness testing, material physical property testing, product precision cross-sectional inspection, etc.);

* Implementation of all PPAP requirements, etc.

The previously low supply efficiency was completely reversed. The procurement lead time was shortened from 6 months to 1 month, effectively addressing market risks caused by supply fluctuations, and the procurement BOM cost was reduced by 50%.