All features articles – Page 18
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FeatureStandoff between the US and Turkey raises questions for OEMs
The collapse in the value of the Turkish lira and the political stand-off between Turkey and the US have some potentially serious consequences for the continued growth of the automotive sector in the country.Car and light van production in Turkey has grown steadily in recent years, to around 1.4-1.5m vehicles ...
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FeatureAnu Goel: the highs and lows
What have been some of the high points in logistics in your career?One is the swing toward providing a level of service that customers expect, as opposed to providing a level of service that we either think they need or that the system can provide. Those are two different ...
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FeatureBattling a perfect storm
The finished vehicle sector in North America is dealing with a lot of challenges at the moment. There is a basic imbalance in the number of vehicles that the US imports and exports with its global trading partners, which contributes to ongoing problems involving congestion and limited capacity on hinterland ...
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FeaturePort Canaveral on a roll
Port Canaveral is now able to handle more finished vehicles thanks to a draft deepening project that allows post-Panamax ro-ro vessels to berth at the port. Late last month, the Floridian port accommodated vessels from Höegh Autoliners and NYK Line simultaneously, a first for the facility, which only started handling ...
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FeatureAfter Marchionne, what next for Fiat Chrysler?
Sergio Marchionne (pictured), former CEO at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), was a remarkable man. He frequently dominated the automotive industry’s headlines and news agenda over the last decade or so and his recent passing away robs the industry of one of its few stars. In an age when corporate suits ...
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FeatureA rising tide – with political undercurrents
Mexican production and exports continued to grow through 2017, both to the US and globally. At the same time, US sales remained strong and were fed by an increase in imports from established and emerging markets. It is only in Canada that both sales and assembly are showing a decline. ...
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FeaturePasha sees positive drivers at the ports
Pasha Automotive Services (PAS) processed a total of more than 448,600 vehicle units across its four port terminal facilities in the US through 2017 for around 17 customers. The company, which is part of the wider Pasha Group, has operations on the US west coast at the ports of Grays ...
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FeatureFinding the first point of rest
Luke Doremus, director of sales for auto/ro-ro at stevedore and terminal operating company Ports America, talks about efficiency gains and losses and how the company is working with port authorities to improve berth productivity
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FeatureSeeking to harmonise supply and demand
In May, supply chain specialist Kinaxis announced that Volvo Cars had chosen its software for work on volume forecasting and production planning. According to Kinaxis, the Swedish carmaker will use its RapidResponse software to model the impact of rising production volumes, as well as other ‘what-if?’ scenarios. Accurate forecasting will ...
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FeatureTransforming inbound flows
Daimler Trucks’ division in Brazil – Mercedes-Benz do Brasil – has invested 500m reais ($150.6m) in its 1m sq.m plant in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo state, to establish a new truck assembly line and transform its supporting inbound logistics structure. The comprehensive overhaul of operations is part of ...
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FeatureWhen will services be back on track?
The state of the rail freight service in the US has been a leading topic of conversation for several months within vehicle supply chains, with discussions still ongoing between OEMs and rail providers. Questions around the availability of capacity and transit delays that have disrupted the timing of finished vehicle ...
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FeatureAfrica awakes
Africa’s vehicle production and distribution sector still trails much of the rest of the world, but the signs are that this is beginning to change
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FeatureRussia's fresh focus on exports
In recent years, Russia has put considerable resources into encouraging recovery in its domestic automotive industry. Last year, the federal budget included 62.3 billion roubles ($1 billion) in state aid for carmakers. Such sums have been spent primarily on boosting demand in the domestic market, which has been under pressure ...
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FeatureA match made in heaven?
According to a study carried out by the European Commission in 2014, almost a quarter of truck journeys on Europe’s roads are carried out empty. In individual member states, the prevalence of empty running can be even higher: in the UK, for instance, Department for Transport (DfT) statistics put the ...
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FeatureBrexit’s unaccustomed burdens
Nine months before the UK’s planned departure from the European Union, uncertainty over customs arrangements is emerging as one of the major concerns of manufacturers – perhaps just as much, if not more so, than the prospect of tariffs and taxes. The risks and impacts from delays in logistics flows ...
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FeatureTrump stamps on Iran’s automotive revival
When Iran reached agreement with the global community in 2015 regarding denuclearisation, resulting in the lifting of sanctions in early 2016, almost immediately Renault and PSA announced their return to the country. Prior to Iran being ostracised, both companies had been active there via joint venture (JV) manufacturing operations, mostly ...
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FeatureTwinning talent with technology
The rate at which emerging digital technologies are transforming the automotive logistics supply chain is hard to keep up with. As both an enabler of everything from platform design to procurement, finance and planning, and a disruptor of traditional supply chain operations, digital technology associated with industry 4.0 is driving ...
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FeatureDriving value into the supply chain
Better communication is needed in the automotive supply chain, including between OEMs, suppliers, logistics providers and IT experts providing digital supply chain services. Digital technology has a lot of answers for an industry that is making strides in addressing the needs of modern manufacturing and the changing face of mobility, ...
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FeatureA hard look at software risks
Few people realise how much software runs today’s cars, observes Les Hatton, emeritus professor of forensic software engineering at Kingston University, UK. “We sit at home and can’t work out why the printer isn’t working, and then we’ll get in a car where there’s probably more software underneath,” he says. ...
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FeatureSweet home Alabama
One of the most popular songs about the US state of Alabama, ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, opens with the line “Big wheels keep on turning” – and indeed the number doing so is set to grow after the January announcement that a $1.6 billion Toyota-Mazda joint-venture manufacturing plant is scheduled to ...