All articles by Victoria Johns – Page 5
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Feature
Standing up to risk
Given that it has recently welcomed a new government, is preparing for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and is tackling a worsening domestic security situation, it is safe to say that the Mexican automotive industry faces significant risks as it seeks to improve on its position as the world’s ...
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FeatureStepping up the quality
There are several advantages of shipping vehicles in kits rather than as completely built units, including lower costs for transport, better customs import conditions and the support of local government in exchange for providing employment to the workforce. A major disadvantage, however, is that defective, damaged or lost goods may ...
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FeatureInnovation and smart tech: Why BMW is driving both
Handling 31m parts and producing almost 10,000 vehicles each day, BMW is increasingly looking to digitalisation and Industry 4.0 innovations to help it organise its logistics more flexibly…
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FeatureUnited Road acquires Fleet Car Carriers
US finished vehicle haulier United Road Services along with its owner, The Carlyle Group, and other investors has acquired Colorado-based Fleet Car Carriers for an undisclosed sum.Based in Romulus, Michigan, United Road will now operate out of more than 90 locations and is projected to move more than 4.5m new, ...
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FeatureDaimler hands first electric eM2 truck to Penske
Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) has handed over the first fully-electric Freightliner eM2 to Penske Truck Leasing Corporation.Following a nine-month collaboration with Daimler to produce and test electric trucks, the Pennsylvania-based third-party logistics provider took receipt of the vehicle in Los Angeles in December and will operate the medium-duty truck ...
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FeatureQ&A: Florian Huettl
Can you outline your role in Renault’s approach to sales and operations planning (S&OP)?I’m the vice-president of sales forecast and distribution. I work in sales and I run the S&OP together with my colleagues from supply chain. That already tells you something about Renault’s approach to S&OP; we manage ...
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FeatureWindow of opportunity
An optimised warehouse is an asset to the logistics market, but with multiple loading docks where goods are being received and dispatched, the workload of warehouse vehicles needs to be considered. Shippers want to avoid traffic congestion to ensure timely dispatch of goods, and carriers want to minimise truck ...
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FeatureBMW ups the pace on industry 4.0 technology
BMW Group is to expand its use of industry 4.0 innovations in its production logistics, it has revealed. In 2015, BMW Group joined forces with the Fraunhofer Institute IML to develop the first self-driving Smart Transport Robots (STR). Three years later, the carmaker is increasingly relying on innovations from industry ...
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FeatureCompeting on a global stage – report from AL Central and Eastern Europe summit
Over the last 15 years, the centre of investment in the European automotive industry has been shifting east. Delegates at the Automotive Logistics Central and Eastern Europe (ALCEE) summit in Budapest last week learned that the region now has a strong network of assembly and supplier plants, along with logistics ...
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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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FeatureTechnology to prove key to evolution of supply chains
The automotive industry is being reshaped by the rise of electric and autonomous vehicles but will only stay ahead of the curve in an age of greater supply chain complexity by adopting wider digitalisation as part of its routine operations, delegates at the JDA conference in Barcelona were told last ...
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FeatureŠkoda deploys autonomous robots at Kvasiny
Škoda Auto is deploying autonomous robots at its small parts warehouse at Kvasiny in the Czech Republic to work alongside its employees and make parts sorting and delivery more efficient. The use of the robots is part of the carmaker’s efforts to digitalise production processes under its 2025 Strategy, which ...
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FeatureACEA and CLEPA highlight dangers of ‘no-deal’ Brexit
Europe’s OEMs and tier suppliers have issued a stark warning at the Brexit summit in Brussels this week about the potentially far-reaching impacts of the UK leaving Europe without a deal in place.Drawing attention to the fact that more than 1,000 EU trucks cross the Channel to deliver to car ...
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FeatureA race against time for the UK car sector
It is still very uncertain what the UK’s exit from the European Union is going to look like at the end of March 2019 but it is going to have a big impact on the automotive industry whatever it looks like. At this year’s Automotive Logistics UK summit, major carmakers ...
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FeatureICO opens latest terminal at Zeebrugge
NYK’s car terminal subsidiary, International Car Operators (ICO), has recently opened its new office building and terminal in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.The new central gate building has operational and corporate departments, with five levels of 900 sq.m and houses 150 employees.International Car Operators signed a concession agreement with the ...
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FeatureP3 to develop warehouse near Mercedes-Benz
European logistics property developer P3 is expanding its business in Germany with the acquisition of a 6.5-hectare site in Horb am Neckar, near Stuttgart.P3, which is based in Prague, Czech Republic, plans to build a new 33,900 sq.m warehouse there by the end of 2019.The site is near Mercedes-Benz’s ...
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FeatureCAR says clock is ticking but no need for alarm
Nafta re-negotiations and the ongoing trade disputes between the US and China are creating considerable uncertainty in the automotive industry, but that does not change the need to keep the supply chain international; if anything, cross-border logistics services have become even more important. Bernard Swiecki, senior automotive analyst at the ...
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FeatureUnipart signs aftersales deal with VW
Unipart Logistics has won a new five-year contract with Volkswagen Group to run its UK aftermarket supply chain.More than 450 workers at Volkswagen's Tamworth logistics hub were transferred to Unipart Logistics after it signed a deal with the carmaker.The operation will service more than 900 retailers and trade partners across ...
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FeatureAcumen expands enclosed fleet
UK-based Acumen Automotive Logistics is investing almost £800,000 ($1.03m) in four enclosed semi-trailers to meet rising demand for covered vehicle transport.Three new Belle Trailers units and one Rolfo trailer are joining Acumen’s enclosed fleet, which has more than doubled in size within five years from 13 to 30 vehicles.The trailers ...
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FeatureBMW to build €1 billion assembly plant in Hungary
BMW has announced it will build an assembly plant in Hungary next year, near the town of Debrecen in the east of the country. The German carmaker said it had chosen Debrecen because of the advantages it offered in terms of infrastructure, logistics connections and proximity to the supplier network. ...