All features articles – Page 17
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FeatureEconomic nationalism to force a lane-change
Typically, the world experiences waves of economic nationalism every three decades but these are often limited to one region each time. Today we’re experiencing a global wave of economic disruption across multiple regions simultaneously. In reaction, automotive manufacturers are having to increase the flexibility and agility of their supply chains ...
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FeatureFreight expectations
Ask a range of logistics managers what their main pain points are, and you will soon hear a common theme – wasting time waiting for freight agents to get back to them. Delays occur, paperwork piles up and costs are often not clear. Moving cargo intermodally is a complex, billion-pound ...
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FeatureMapping for Mercedes
In June this year, Mercedes-Benz US International (MBUSI) announced the outcome of its inaugural Innovation Challenge, a competition for start-ups which promised $50,000 in prize money as well as the alluring prospect of a contract with Mercedes-Benz in the US, and perhaps also its global parent, Daimler AG. Not ...
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FeatureChugging or changing?
Demand for rail transport is growing faster than service providers can keep up with, according to Siegfried Jung, head of planning and steering vehicle dispatch and transport at BMW Group.[related_topics align="right" border="yes"]Jung says that increased demand for rail transport, from both public and industrial sectors, currently exceeds capacity. Rail infrastructure ...
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FeatureRewriting the rules
Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry wants OEMs to make huge investments in new production capacity in Russia over the coming decade, in order to continue qualifying for state aid. A bill laying down the basis of a new national localisation strategy was published in August that is designed to replace ...
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FeatureBigger vehicles, bigger challenges
Last year, GM sold around 3m vehicles in the US, with roughly 775,000 imported from Canada and Mexico and the rest coming from around the world, mainly from South Korea, China and Europe. Combining deep-sea and short-sea volumes, the carmaker used seaports to receive close to 200,000 vehicles into the ...
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FeatureEnergising the synergising
Renault and Nissan began their wide-ranging alliance and set up cross-shareholdings in each other back in 1999, and since then Daimler, Avtovaz and most recently Mitsubishi have also become part of this evolving structure. Numerous shared vehicle platforms, manufacturing and logistics operations and back-office functions have been developed. Furthermore, impressive ...
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FeatureQ&A: Srini Muthusrinivasan
What is meant by this term ‘the autonomous supply chain’?The word autonomous has got very prevalent today in the industry. [To understand] the idea of the autonomous supply chain, you’ve got to go back to the history of how we went all the way from the industrial revolution to the ...
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FeaturePeacing together new logistics
The end of a longstanding conflict in the Horn of Africa is set to create new pathways into one of the potentially richest automotive markets in the continent; after two decades, Eritrea and Ethiopia have concluded a conflict that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The catalyst for peace ...
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FeatureMoving on to terra firma
Following sustained pressure on margins in recent years, the global shipping industry has witnessed some radical changes, with consolidation and technology combining to reconfigure the way many shipping lines approach new business. With competition on the waves mounting, one new channel for many car carriers has been to expand ...
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FeatureBrazilian auto association adjusts forecast
Brazil’s National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea), has adjusted predictions for how the year will end for the finished vehicle sector in the country – upwards for domestic registrations and production, downwards for exports.In updated forecasts, Anfavea projected a 13.7% rise to 2.54m units in vehicles licensed, up from ...
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FeatureTesting times
The start of September this year marked the point at which all new car registrations in the EU had to comply with the new CO2 emissions test – the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). This laboratory test is designed to introduce more realistic and stricter criteria when assessing ...
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FeaturePressing a point
Slightly to the north of Wolverhampton in the UK’s industrial Midlands – and perhaps more crucially just a few miles off a key transport route, the M6 motorway – lies one of the latest additions to the worldwide roster of production facilities for stamped automotive metal parts. In mid-September, Spanish-owned ...
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FeatureGefco adapta o fornecimento de peças para a Audi
A Gefco descreveu os detalhes de um contrato recente assinado com a Audi para o fornecimento de peças da Áustria para suas fábricas de automóveis na Alemanha. A divisão da Gefco na Áustria está carregando vários componentes de fornecedores no país e distribuindo-os em cinco pistas nas fábricas da Audi ...
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FeatureTaking the ‘E’ out of ETA
Traditionally, OEMs and vehicle-carriers have never been able to be 100% accurate about vehicle delivery times in the information they provide to dealerships, and dealers have often disregarded the information as a result. As one of the participants in a Q&A session at a recent Finished Vehicle Logistics conference observed: ...
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FeatureThe future of logistics?
A manufacturing plant in Pittsburgh with an urgent requirement to send a pallet of freight to Chicago has few attractive options, as there is currently no direct highway route between the two. But if the visionaries at Virgin Hyperloop One have their way, that will soon change. By loading the ...
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FeatureA crisis in human capital
As the automotive logistics sector continues to automate and let technology take the lead, there are some important human factors to resolve if such plans are to succeed – as delegates at this year’s Automotive Logistics Global conference in Detroit found out While the US car market may be ...
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FeatureMexico hopes for a smoother road ahead
After much uncertainty around trade talks between Mexico and the US and the former’s presidential election, Mexico’s economic and political conditions now seem clearer, leaving OEMs and LSPs in the country more optimistic about the future.Mexico, which is the world’s fourth biggest vehicle exporter, has enjoyed strong levels of exports ...
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FeatureLegacy of a moderniser: Sergio Marchionne
Already known for turning around the Fiat Group in under two years, Sergio Marchionne was instrumental in Fiat forming an alliance with US carmaker Chrysler when it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. The Italian carmaker took a 20% controlling stake in Chrysler in June that year and Marchionne ...
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Partner ContentDriving predictive maintenance
Gefco’s SYNCHRO hub is using connected technology and AI to optimise service parts inventory and distribution, writes Karen McCandless