22nd December 2009 - Impressive Year-End Numbers Announced by Raybestos® brand

Nearly 2,000 New Product Numbers Announced in 2009 Cover Over 160,000 Applications

2009 was an extremely busy manufacturing year for Raybestos brand products.  The Raybestos brand, a member of the Affinia family of brands, produced 1,400 new brake numbers and 539 new chassis numbers over the past year.  The 1,939 new numbers added 161, 278 total applications to the Raybestos Brake & Chassis Catalog.

“Thanks to unmatched effort in research and testing the Raybestos brand remains an aftermarket leader diligent in both speed to market and coverage offered,” says Bruce Reau, Vice President, Product Development, Affinia Global Brake and Chassis Group.  “We are proud of this success and look forward to another year of industry-leading new number production in 2010.”

To date, the Raybestos brand has already added over 9,000 listings to their Brake & Chassis Catalog for model year 2010 applications.  2011 vehicles added to the database include Ford Fiesta, Audi R4 and Chevrolet Cruz.

Additionally, the Raybestos brand offers industry-leading coverage for foreign nameplate applications.  The brand added over 30,000 listings (15,348 chassis & 15,057 brake) to its Brake & Chassis catalog in 2009.

Continued efforts of streamlining and digitalizing new brand number offerings in 2009 proved vital in enhancing the way the brand is expanding its coverage.

"We overhauled our complete data origination, maintenance and exchange organization while developing new process workflows,” says Jeff Alexander, Director, Commerce Data & Management.  “The central element in our digital transformation is our Product Information Management System (PIMS). Labor intensive product management and research activities have been streamlined to bring new part coverage to market quicker while increasing overall customer satisfaction. PIMS incorporates data structures that support current and future industry standards and works in concert with our award-winning ElectriCat® catalog system.”

All new Raybestos coverage offerings are updated monthly and available to technicians in a variety of formats, including: the downloadable Raybestos eSelect program. Nearly 10,000 technicians have downloaded new part numbers and carried-up applications using the eSelect program.

Raybestos® brand brake and chassis parts are produced by affiliated companies in Affinia’s Global Brake & Chassis Group, the leading manufacturer of braking systems and chassis parts in the transportation industry. The brake line includes everything from brake drums to rotors, pads, shoes and hydraulic parts, while the chassis line features tie rods, ball joints, idler arms and sway bar links. Raybestos brand braking and chassis systems are also the only systems used by NASCAR’s Joe Gibbs Race Team in competition.

Affinia Group Inc. is a global leader in the on and off-highway replacement products and service industry. In North America the Affinia family of brands includes Wix® filters, Raybestos®, AIMCO® and BrakePro® brake products, and McQuay-Norris® and Raybestos™ Chassis parts. South American and European brands include Nakata®, Filtron®, Urba® and Quinton Hazell®.