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Labor peace; time now to add members; chart Big Steel merger

The phone call came from Canadian Auto Workers president Basil (Buzz) Hargrove to UAW President Stephen P. Yokich about one week into the Canadian Auto Workers' three-week strike against GM.The CAW strike fund was dwindling quickly. Leaders asked members for a special assessment to prop up the kitty in case the walkout lasted more than a month.Don't worry, Mr. Yokich assured his Canadian counterpart,

By Gardner, Greg • Dec. 1, 1996

Sentimental journey

Retro. Futro. Heritage. Whatever you call it, it's starting to cause a commotion in mainstream automotive design.Once strictly reserved for low-volume niche cars and quirky experiments, the cues and shapes of the past are starting to show up on much higher volume cars, and promise to become major elements of many future bread-and-butter vehicles. The goal is to escape a sea of sameness and renew a

By Drew Winter • Nov. 1, 1996

Deciphering future product preference: the key is understanding what drives product image

Consumer preferences for the type and concept of the vehicle they purchase is a continually evolving process. Generally, the type of vehicle a consumer buys changes as he ages and moves through the various stages of his life. The usual cycle has a younger consumer starting off with a lower-price, small car or truck, and then continually moving into a larger and more expensive vehicle as he ages.Although

By CHRISTOPHER W. CEDERGREN • Nov. 1, 1996

No one has to ask ‘What’s a Jaguar?

SANTA BARBARA, CA -- Jim Padilla is as American as apple pie. Mike Dale is as British as beef Wellington. Jim pronounces Jaguar "Jag-yer," Mike "Jag-you-are"It really doesn't matter how they say it: the Yank and the Brit are working to restore one of the world's best-known automotive brands to its former glory as a leader in the prestige segment where image is everything.Although they have quite different

By David C. Smith • Oct. 1, 1996

The year of the eights

Several auto analysts believe 1997 to be a watershed year for the industry: If the model year sustains strong sales, it could be the first signal that the automotive sector, like a growing snake shedding its skin, is tortuously evolving away from its boom-'n-bust business heritage.But to maintain the sort of solid, steady sales that could eliminate the past's often ruinous cycles, automakers know

By Bill Visnic • Oct. 1, 1996

Steel crazy, after all these years: truck popularity, consumer preference keeps steel strong.

Like the strains of an old country song, steel continues to maintain its own melody and momentum.Because of the shifting market -- from cars to trucks -- and an apparent consumer preference for the material, steel content of the average family vehicle has increased for the sixth straight year.In addition to the popularity of pickups and sport/utility vehicles (SUVs), which use more sheet metal than

By Jackson, Kathi • Sept. 1, 1996

Stainless structures: PNGV Supercar highlights qualities of stainlesssteel

If the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) Supercar project is any indication of the future of automobiles, then "light" is the key word and stainless steel is one material to watch.Technology developed for the project includes a lightweight stainless steel vehicle structure designed by Armco Inc. and Autokinetics Inc.Although it's often passed up in favor of other steel products for

By Kinsler, Christen • Sept. 1, 1996

Tough fluff: plastics recycling faces big barriers.

Recycling automotive plastics still sounds good on paper, but low landfill costs, weak demand for recycled compounds and the high cost of separating and identifying different types of plastics remain formidable economic barriers.Take the case of Phoenix Fiberglass, a Cobourg, Ont., company that filed for bankruptcy protection last March. For about five years, Phoenix tried to reclaim the core calcium

By Gardner, Greg • Sept. 1, 1996

Plastics graduate underhood.

When Dustin Hoffman was told in the 1967 movie The Graduate that plastics were the future, not even the forward-thinking screenwriter could have known that 30 years later plastics would show up in as many places under the hood as they do today.Although the development of underhood plastics began five years before Mr. Hoffman and Simon & Garfunkel made Mrs. Robinson famous, plastics suppliers and molders

By Tim Keenan • Sept. 1, 1996

Chipping in: new Texas Instruments DSP could be major breakthrough

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) is "chipping in" to the auto industry's effort to simplify vehicles and their systems with a new digital signal processor (DSP). TI says it's the first such computer chip designed specifically to improve the performance, lower costs and reduce component count of systems driven by small motors.The major benefits of the new chip, called the TMS320C240, or' C240 for short,

By Tim Keenan • Sept. 1, 1996

Scavenging in hulk heaven: Big Three work together in plastic recycling

To the staff of the United States Council on Automotive Research (USCAR) Vehicle Recycling Development Center in Highland Park, MI, the vision goes beyond what is or isn't happening today with recycled plastics.Like a biologist dissecting a frog, these folks take apart recent-model cars and old junkers and examine the properties of their plastic parts, constantly looking for new ways to get them back

By Gardner, Greg • Sept. 1, 1996

Chassis frames: new tech for the old standby

They don't look like much, but old-fashioned chassis frames are the very foundation for some of the toughest and most popular vehicles in North America.Most new cars feature unibody construction in which large stamped metal sheets are welded together to form a strong, relatively lightweight body shell. But most light trucks and sport/utility vehicles (SUVs) still use traditional body-on-frame chassis

By Drew Winter • June 1, 1996

UAW, IUE close ranks at Delphi Packard

The International Union of Electrical Workers, those docile folks who willingly agree Packard to let GM hire new members its eight IUE plants for 55% of the $17.78-an-hour base wage, are saying enough's enough. Members of IUE Local 717 in Warren, OH, authorize a strike if their leaders can't resolve a dispute with Delphi Packard, which wants to shift 1,800 jobs in Ohio to Mexico. Most significantly,

June 1, 1996

Victory ‘garden:’ manufacturing firms mutate, mushroom as makers of munitions, other war material

On Dec. 29, 1941, almost three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that plunged the United States into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in one of his famous "fireside chats," told Americans: "We must become the Arsenal of Democracy."With that directive, he marshaled the economic might of the nation to an epic display of mass production the world had never known. By the time

By McCann, Hugh Wray • May 1, 1996

Foreign invasion: imports, transplants change auto industry forever

Imported automobiles and those built by foreign manufacturers in the U.S. (commonly known as transplants) have had a tremendous impact on the domestic industry. By spurring further competition for the U.S. Big Three and raising quality standards, imports and transplants changed the U.S. industry forever.For the first half-century of automaking, imports made up a mere trickle of cars on American roads.

By Tim Keenan, Mike Arnholt • May 1, 1996

The mass production revolution: forget the machine: “the line” changed the world

Three words: craft, mass, lean. That's how the authors of the epochal book The Machine that Changed the World sum up U.S. manufacturing for the past 100 years or so. A lot has changed in the past six years since its publication, but then again, not that much. Compared with the cataclysmic events of the past 100 years little has changed at all.There have been no 90% increases in productivity, no doubling

By Drew Winter • May 1, 1996

Short and sweet: so this is how to become a classic....

Literally thousands of auto nameplates have come and gone in the last century. The bulk of the failures came early when a brand new industry was forming, but there have been some notable flops along the way by the daring and those perhaps not daring enough. What follows is the WAW staff's pick of buggies that bungled -- but still left an imprint:Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg -- It's ironic that the only

By Mike Arnholt • May 1, 1996

Steel mill runs with woman’s touch

What's a hacksaw operator? That's how Connie Thomas, senior process systems analyst for Timken Co.'s Faircrest Steel Plant, reacted to the job she was offered at the company 23 years ago.But she figured if a man could learn to operate a saw that cut off sample pieces of steel for inspection, so could she. She began work at the company after a divorce to provide for her daughters, who were then 4 and

By McCann, Karey • April 1, 1996

Easier recycling

Criticized for being much tougher to recover and reuse than aluminum or steel, the SMCAA counters that it's not a difficult material to recycle. Tom Harth, chairman of SMCAA's technical committee, says more than 20 automotive parts contain recycled SMC and another 10 or more are scheduled in upcoming vehicles. "SMC is an easily recycled plastic, which is why SMC molders have been successful in recycling

April 1, 1996

T&N extends options to buy Kolbenschmidt

United Kingdom-based T&N plc purchases controlling interest in Kolbenschmidt AG to acquire the latter's metal product development and fabrication expertise.

April 1, 1996

Strike won’t cripple economy, just bruise it

The Lopez war drags onEarly estimates are that General Motors Corp. will ask for between $3 billion and $4 billion in damages from Volkswagen AG in the civil suit filed March 7 in Detroit over Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua's alleged pilfering of parts price lists and future product plans when he defected to VW more than three years ago. "I think we could get this case to trial within a year," says

April 1, 1996

IHI to build roof systems plant

Sunroof manufacturer Inalfa Hollandia Inc. (IHI) plans to build a new roof systems plant and North American headquarters facility in Auburn Hills, MI. The 125,000-sq.-ft. (11,600-sq.m) complex, expected to be complete in December, will replace three existing IHI facilities, including its current Farmington Hills, MI headquarters.

April 1, 1996

New Saturn workers say ‘yes’ to the UAW

All 300 of the temporary workers Saturn Corp. put on the permanent payroll Feb. 1 choose to join the United Auto workers union, says Michael Bennett, president of UAW Local 1853 in Spring Hill, TN."They've all signed cards as far as I know," Mr. Bennett says. "We tried to treat them as full members of this union. I think they appreciated that the UAW supported the decision to begin local hiring."Because

March 1, 1996

AlliedSignal Plastics refoucses

Moving to ensure we are able to meet the increasing trend of product development work being performed at the Tier 1 level," AlliedSignal Plastics is adding eight employees and promoting three in its Southfield, MI, Automotive Industry headquarters, says Dave Homyak, Global Automotive Industry Manager. "The growth of the automotive segment of AlliedSignal Plastics, coupled with the changing needs of

March 1, 1996

Bayer pumps up plastics position; Monsanto acquisition adds $700 million to annual sales.

There's no end to the consolidation taking place among automotive suppliers. First-, second- and third-tier companies are trying to improve their position by expanding global reach, adding new technology and/or increasing their customer base by buying out other suppliers or entering joint ventures and strategic alliances.Germany-based Bayer Corp. lacked an outlet for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene

By Tim Keenan • March 1, 1996