Automakers: Page 447

Young lions roar: A.O. Smith Barrie team practices cutting-edge management

BARRIE, ONT. - A.O. Smith Corp.'s module manufacturing plant is on the cutting edge of the industry's modularization trend, supplying front- and rear-axle and engine-cradle modules just-in-time to Chrysler Corp.'s Bramalea, Ont., LH assembly facility. But that's not the only aspect of this 44,000-sq.-ft. (4,080-sq.-m) plant that pushes the tradition envelope.From the minute you hear the rock and roll

By Tim Keenan • March 1, 1995

Inside GM Purchasing: sorting out the winners and losers

In April, WAW detailed what goes on inside General Motors Corp.'s Worldwide Purchasing organization leading up to the actual awarding of contracts. The following article focuses on the awards process.Everything starts with the "annual costbook value." That's what the costs analysts deep in the bowels of General Motors Corp. come up with for what they think GM can afford for the components, machine

By David C. Smith • March 1, 1995

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial Intelligence

Automakers and dealers alike are increasingly seeing the use case for AI within their operations. Explore some use cases in this trendline.

By WardsAuto staff

Back in the spotlight: composites move out of aluminum’s shadow

Ford Motor Co. did more than simply make a flashy design statement in January when it introduced the compositeskinned GT90 supercar at the North American Intertional Auto Show. It also brought composite materials back into the spotlight after several years of standing in aluminum's shadow.Automakers have been making flashy - and some not-so-spectacular - concept cars out of glass- and carbon fiber-reinforced

By Drew Winter • March 1, 1995

Team Avalon: Toyota’s U.S. arm finally gets a chance to spread its wings

GEORGETOWN, KY - The launch of the '95 Toyota Avalon might also be called the internationalization of Keith Kidd - and many of his colleagues.Long considered children in Toyota Motor Corp.'s expansive international network, the No. 1 Japanese automaker's U.S. manufacturing operation finally has proven itself and is getting to spread its wings. In a complete role reversal, the Toyota Motor Mfg. USA

By Sorge, Marjorie • March 1, 1995

Who are those guys? AlliedSignal Plastics comes to town with guns blazing

MORRISTOWN, NJ - "Who are those guys?" Robert Redford and Paul Newman kept asking each other that as they watched a posse relentlessly stalking them in the classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.To those of us who follow the automotive plastics industry, it wasn't surprising to have the phrase or the movie clip crop up in a recent AlliedSignal Plastics promotional video.The company is the second

By Drew Winter • March 1, 1995

Honey, I shrunk the ECUs: multiplexing, miniaturization help free space underhood

If you've looked under the hood of almost any car in the last five years, you might have noticed that there isn't a lot of room in there. The proliferation of electronic controllers and other components in the engine compartment combined with the push for more room in the passenger compartment is placing a premium on underhood real estate.With automaker engineers acting like high-stakes land brokers,

By Tim Keenan • March 1, 1995

It’s all in the name

Wanting to push itself even farther from parent GM, the Automotive Components Group (ACG) Worldwide has a new name: Delphi Automotive Systems. Last year, the components operation became a separate operating sector to help convince customers that it has an arms-length relationship with the automaker. The name change takes the split a step farther. Although many thought the new name would include the

March 1, 1995

Honda increases prices without U.S. intervention

While the industry braces for a trade war that could cause the prices of Japanese vehicles to increase in the U.S., American Honda Motor Co. Inc. - like other Japanese automakers - is raising stickers due to the strong yen. Starting in mid-April, Acura prices increase an average of 1.5%, or $349, and Honda-badged models jump an average of 0.7%, or $117. Also on the pricing front, American Suzuki Motor

March 1, 1995

Strong yen threatens Japanese auto industry

More than any potential U.S. sanctions, the continuing appreciation of the yen threatens Japan's auto industry, says Hiroshi Okuda, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Toyota Motor Corp. "Stupefied" by the yen's skyrocketing value, Mr. Okuda says Japan faces unemployment rates as high as those in Europe and the U.S. (5%-plus vs. 3% now in Japan) if the yen remains strong. Reason:

March 1, 1995

Ford execs move on

As an international organization, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is well suited to its new president's goal in pursuing more globalization for the group.As Ford Motor Co.'s executive engineer for production vehicle safety and compliance, SAE's new boss, John M. Leinonen, knows all about the industry's global trend. He says the society has a lot to offer engineers, particularly in Asian

March 1, 1995

Tenneco moving toward noise-cancellation system

By 1998 Tenneco Automotive's noise-cancellation exhaust system could be added to the list of successful products -- like Kellogg's Corn Flakes and Post-It Notes -- that were the result of R&D mistakes or surprise benefits of other products.Originally designed to merely make cars more quiet, the Tenneco system allows automakers to take out a significant amount of back pressure, boosting engine fuel

By Sorge, Marjorie • Feb. 1, 1995

GM-UAW settle, but more walkouts may be coming

GM buckles under to the United Auto Workers union once again, and settles a three-day strike at its strategic AC Delco/Delco Elelctronics Flint (MI) East components complex by agreeing to add 663 workers over 18 months to reduce overtime and outsourcing. It's the sixth UAW walkout at GM in the past year -- and may not be the last. Negotiations over staffing and other issues also are simmering at the

Feb. 1, 1995

Show stoppers

The 1995 version of the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) a.k.a. the Detroit Auto Show is -- in a word -- explosive. With Ford Motor Co's 1996 Taurus/Sable bowing amid billowing smoke, fire and earthquake effects, Chrysler's '96 minivan leapfrogging over Chairman Bob Eaton and President Bob Lutz, and Pontiac's Grand Prix 300GPX showcar punching through a curtain of flame, it's clear the

By Tim Keenan • Feb. 1, 1995

Dealer caution tied to interest rates may be the culprit

Ford sources say consumer buying remains strong and that the growing small-car stockpile is traceable chiefly to a drop in dealer orders, reflecting the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hikes. Because they must finance their inventories, dealers get hit immediately when rates rise and thus tend to cut back purchases from automakers when money gets more costly. But other experts suspect that buyers

Feb. 1, 1995

Tenneco sells brake unit; Cooper buys Abex

Tenneco Automotive sells its Lincolnshire, IL-based brake division to James E. Bennett Jr. of Charleston, SC, for undisclosed terms. Under Bennett the company, which had $63 million in 1994 sales, will be called Brake Pro Inc. and will continue to manufacture and sell asbestos-free brake pad and brake shoe friction materials. Meanwhile, Cooper industries of Houston, TX, completes the purchase of Abex

Feb. 1, 1995

Ford opens salaried benefits ‘cafeteria.’

Welcome to the Ford Motor Co. benefits "cafeteria." Beginning June 1, its 45,000 salaried employees will be eligible for a flexible benefits program.Each employee will put together his or her own benefits package from a broad selection. To pay for the program, Ford credits each person with a specific amount of money, consisting of fixed amounts and additional credits, called "Bonus Flexdollars," which

Feb. 1, 1995

Lear gets behind outsourced seating plan

North American and European automakers will outsource about three-fourths of their seats by 1998, and Lear Seating Inc. (LSI) is taking steps to make certain more backsides on both sides of the Atlantic are cushioned by its seats.Already the No. 1 seat maker in North America with 34% of the $3.9 billion outsourced market -- Johnson Controls Inc. is hot on its heels with a 32% share -- Lear plans to

By Sorge, Marjorie • Feb. 1, 1995

Japanese earthquake takes toll on automakers

The massive mid-January earthquake that hit the important port city of Kobe in western Japan damaged at least two automotive assembly plants and disrupted deliveries from key suppliers to assembly plants across the island nation. Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd. stopped production at two quake-damaged assembly plants, Toyota Motor Corp. lost 20,000 units when it shut down all of its assembly facilities for

Feb. 1, 1995

Sophisticated seats: they no longer reflect “golden” seat-of-the-pants design.

Just how firm do today's car buyers want their seats? What do minivan shoppers really want in a seating fabric? How do we make an instrument panel that doesn't squeak? Are kids really comfortable in child-safety seats?These are questions that once were asked--and answered--only by automakers. But now they sometimes are asking suppliers to take over this responsibility, too, especially for major interior

By Winter, Dean • Jan. 1, 1995

The treasure of the Sierra Madre; pyrolysis promises rich rewards, but they may prove elusive

It was early and I'd been up way too late the night before watching an old Humphrey Bogart movie.Some scientists at the General Motors Corp. Technical Center were explaining a complex thermal recycling process called pyrolysis. Somebody said it might someday make it possible to "mine" landfills. That was the trigger.Suddenly I see Bogie, rifle in hand, lying behind a worn-out truck tire on top of

By Drew Winter • Jan. 1, 1995

Ford-Mazda ready to ink European partnership deal

Since 1989, Ford Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. have been discussing the idea of Ford of Europe building a vehicle for Mazda to rebadge and sell in Europe. it now appears the deal is imminent. The choice has reportedly been narrowed to a Mazda-badged vehicle based on the Ford Fiesta. Ford probably will build it in Cologne, Germany, rather than at Fiesta plants in the U.K. or Spain. Production could

Jan. 1, 1995

SMC ... from design diversity to disassembly

Tough, rigid and surprisingly flexible and adaptable, SMC is becoming the material of choice for many new applications on higher volume vehicles.Take the exotic hood of the new Ford Mustang with its raised center section that tapers back to a scoop on each side. The cost of tooling for steel parts for this curvaceous piece would have been prohibitive."SMC allowed us to execute exceptional styling

Jan. 1, 1995

No sleeping giant; ACG Worldwide sets sights on Asia Pacific

HONGKONG -- The only way General Motors Corp.'s Automotive Components Group-Worldwide can increase non-Gm, non-North American sales to 50% of its business is to succeed in Asia/Pacific."The Asia/Pacific automobile industry is growing at a far higher rate than any other region and is predicted to increase 47% in the next 10 years to 22 million units per annum by the year 2004," says William Ebbert,

By David E. Zoia • Jan. 1, 1995

No breather on news front in 1994; auto industry moves from ICU into recovery room

Like the automotive industry's swiftly rebounding sales, there was scarcely a breather on the news front in 1994.Each of the U.S. Big Three automakers reorganized in varying degrees; each entered critically important new vehicles on the market; and it was a turbulent year for the Japanese-based automakers, who were hit by the double whammy of market softness at home and rising U.S. prices triggered

By David C. Smith • Jan. 1, 1995

Pena throws in towel on GM truck recall

The U.S. Department of Transportation dropped its investigation of 1973-'87-model General Motors Corp. full-size pickup trucks because it could not win the court battle the automaker intended to wage, say GM and Washington insiders.DOT Secretary Federico Pena, who had said the trucks presented an "unreasonable risk" of fire in side collisions, decided to drop the push for a recall when the Justice

Jan. 1, 1995