The UK car industry is on a global charm offensive to rebuild the shrunken supply chain behind Britain's auto business, targeting 15,000 new jobs and almost 200 fresh projects over the next three years.
Sweden's Höganäs AB, a producer of metal powders, implements a system to improve its access to market intelligence, plan for demand and optimize inventories, while ensuring just-in-time delivery to the assembly line.
"New business reality." That's an apt way to describe the position of any company that has just emerged from four years of reorganization under Chapter 11 of U.S. bankruptcy law. And it's precisely the challenge that Delphi Automotive faced back in 2009, when it sought to reinvent itself and shore up relations with an army of suppliers.
The UK government and the automotive industry are investing £500m ($755m) each to double the number of jobs created or secured in the automotive supply chain by developing an Advanced Propulsion Centre.
The non-profit Automotive Industry Action Group is partnering with automotive manufacturing associations representing the states of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee to assist in accelerating development of the industry's supply base in the South.
DHL is looking to increase the amount of shipping it does for car companies at the pre-launch and launch stages by offering an integrated approach, head of automotive Fathi Tlatli told the Automotive News Europe Congress in Paris.
The automotive manufacturing industry is becoming more complex than ever before. More models, including hybrids, are being introduced, and there are now more features and options, with technology used to drive end-market price and model differentiation.
When Marcos Purty arrived here in 2011 as the chief of General Motors' Indonesian operations, he found a mothballed auto plant. Today, that plant is humming. About 700 people work in the facility, 16 miles east of Jakarta, compared with about 30 just 18 months ago. And next month, GM will start delivering its first Indonesian-built vehicle in years, the Chevrolet Spin.
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) plans a new $70m logistics hub that it expects will create 600 new jobs from the automaker and its contractors and service providers at its Tuscaloosa County, Alabama campus.