Fierce competition among automotive metalforming companies requires a good strategy, innovation and an eye on the future. Business management at all levels of the automotive supply chain balance capital investment in manufacturing technology with income from secure contracts, while positioning for future opportunities. The flexibility to handle variety and the ability to provide value-added services are keys to positioning for new business, and can result in differentiation from supplying commodity stamped parts for more profitable enterprises. A good example of this philosophy: LSP Automotive Systems LLC, which recently constructed a new sheetmetal-stamping facility in Union, SC, to supply BMW with body parts for automobiles manufactured in Greer, SC. The 200,000-sq.-ft. LSP facility will eventually employ 75-100 people when it reaches full production in 2008, and should employ 130 when it reaches its five-year goal. As a start-up company, LSP produces sheetmetal stampings for the exterior of BMW's highly secretive new vehicle planned for introduction in 2008. Anchoring the stamping facility is a new robotic tandem line featuring six hydraulic presses, supplied by Schuler Inc., Canton, MI.. The hydraulic press line is laid out for process flexibility, with a lead-off press and the option of three to five following operations, depending on the application. The line includes a six-axis destacking robot able to select blanks from two positions and place them onto a conveyor belt. After blank washing and lubrication, the blanks move to an optical centering station where a camera records and calculates any positioning adjustments required, allowing flexibility for accurate orientation of a variety of parts. A six-axis loading robot, which can handle single or double unattached blanks, then adjusts the blank position as needed and loads the blanks into the lead-off press. LSP's new hydraulic line produced its first part, manually, in January 2007, and robotically one month later. As the firm works to ready for full-scale production in early 2008, with 32 different die sets and 119 dies in all, the successful completion of the press installation marked a satisfying milestone.