This book explores the business history of three major independent American automakers - Nash Motor Company, the Hudson Motor Car Company, and the American Motors Company - that faced fierce competition from the 'Big Three'. With roots extending back to the first decade of the twentieth century, Nash Motor Company and the Hudson Motor Car Company managed to compete and even prosper as independent producers until they merged in 1954 to form the American Motors Company, which itself remained independent until it was bought in 1987 by the Chrysler Corporation. In "Storied Independent Automakers", renowned automotive scholar Charles K. Hyde argues that these companies, while so far neglected by auto history scholars, made notable contributions to automotive engineering and styling and were an important part of the American automobile industry. Hyde investigates how the relatively small corporations struggled in a postwar marketplace increasingly dominated by the giant firms of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, which benefited from economies of scale in styling, engineering, tooling, marketing, and sales. He examines the innovations that kept the independents' products distinctive from those of the Big Three and allowed them to survive and sometimes prosper against their larger competitors. Hyde also focuses on the visionary leaders who managed the companies, including Charles Nash, Roy D. Chapin, Howard Coffin, George Mason, George Romney, and Roy D. Chapin Jr., who have been largely unexamined by other scholars. Finally, Hyde analyzes the ultimate failure of the American Motors Company and the legacy it left for carmakers and consumers today. "Storied Independent Automakers" is based on extensive research in archival collections generated by the three companies. Residing in large part in the DaimlerChrysler Corporate Collection, these sources have been seldom tapped by other scholars before this volume. Auto historians and readers interested in business history will enjoy "Storied Independent Automakers".

This comprehensive reference guide reviews the literature concerning the impact of the automobile on American social, economic, and political history. Covering the complete history of the automobile to date, twelve chapters of bibliographic essays describe the important works in a series of related topics and provide broad thematic contexts. This work includes general histories of the automobile, the industry it spawned and labor-management relations, as well as biographies of famous automotive personalities. Focusing on books concerned with various social aspects, chapters discuss such issues as the car's influence on family life, youth, women, the elderly, minorities, literature, and leisure and recreation. Berger has also included works that investigate the government's role in aiding and regulating the automobile, with sections on roads and highways, safety, and pollution. The guide concludes with an overview of reference works and periodicals in the field and a description of selected research collections.

"The Automobile in American History and Culture" provides a resource with which to examine the entire field and its structure. Popular culture scholars and enthusiasts involved in automotive research will appreciate the extensive scope of this reference. Cross-referenced throughout, it will serve as a valuable research tool.

Velocity Overdrive: The Road To Reinvention is the third book from entrepreneur and former dealer Dale Pollak s Velocity series. In his prior books, Velocity: From the Front Line to the Bottom Line and Velocity 2.0: Paint, Pixels & Profitability, Pollak introduced the Velocity Method of Inventory ManagementTM and the application of market-based metrics for improving the performance of used vehicle departments. Velocity Overdrive shifts the discussion of velocity principles and metrics to the next level. Across North America, dealers are no longer assured of profitability and prosperity. Today s environment is defined by increased competition, a greater degree of market volatility, ongoing margin compression and fast-changing consumer expectations. Velocity Overdrive reveals the journey many dealers have undertaken to reinvent their businesses and compete effectively in this more challenging retail marketplace. The book details the velocity-driven road to reinvention that begins in used vehicles and extends to other dealership departments. This is a transformative time for the car business, Pollak says. Velocity Overdrive is intended to help dealers transition to more efficient and effective operations that maximize the return on investment (ROI) and profitability they expect from their stores.

This book examines the form and character of the internationalization of employee relations in the automobile industry. It goes onto examine the impact of the new forms of regionalization and their impact on employment relations within firms. Case studies are used to examine the transformation of employment standards, including General Motors, Toyota, Renault, FIAT and Peugeot. The book also assesses the significance of the emergence of regional integration processes in the form of regional economic spaces (EC, Nafta, Mercusor and ASEAN).

This book is about my experiences at a, now closed, General Motors metal casting plant in the Buffalo, New York area. It follows my journey from apprenticeship training in a skilled trade, to becoming a journeyman in the trade, to going back to school for my college degree, and finally being promoted to supervisor of a critical department in the plant.

When most people key the ignition switch or push the start button, they really do not have any idea what is involved in the engineering, technology, equipment, and human labor required to produce a motor vehicle. Heavy manufacturing, especially casting facilities, were and are dangerous places to work. I reluctantly have given the reader examples of several instances of human suffering which took place during my eighteen years of employment as well as many stories from within that GM plant.

For the better part of three decades I carried the material for this book with me and did nothing until our Government decided to bailout GM and Chrysler. At that point I dusted off the attache case and began this journey. You see, GM was not going to go out of business but going into bankruptcy would mean revamping retiree pay and medical benefits for the UAW and that was not going to happen. Six decades of questionable management and union relations at the corporate and plant levels had finally caught up with them.

The globalization of the motor vehicle industry--specifically, cars and light trucks--has engendered new forms of competition and cooperation with less regard for national boundaries than ever before. The DaimlerChrysler merger, the GM-Toyota joint venture, the Renault equity stake in Nissan, the Ford takeover of Mazda, Jaguar, and Volvo cars, and direct foreign investments in Mexico, Mercosur (Mercado Com DEGREESD'un del Sur), China, and India--developments like these are almost impossible to keep up with. Hiraoka, a prize-winning analyst of manufacturing excellence in the automotive industry, surveys them and their causes and presents a clarifying picture with thoroughness and depth.

Hiraoka's explanation of the various factors contributing to globalization of the motor vehicle industry provides the background information necessary to gain perspective on recent events. These developments include e-commerce networks, alliances with local and far-flung parts suppliers, low-cost mass production and distribution systems, the launching of hybrid products in mature economies, and the buildup of capacity in emerging markets. His analysis ranges widely, delving into managerial reactions to regional free-trade blocks, currency crises, government shifts away from central planning and trade protectionism, the vicissitudes of business cycles in emerging markets, and the juxtaposition of Japan's prolonged recession and the booming American motor vehicle market. Corporate decision-makers, labor leaders, policy analysts, researchers, students, and industry observers will benefit from understanding the global characteristics of today's motor vehicle industry.

At the beginning of the 1990s the German car industry had its back to the wall. Japanese competitors were demonstrating significant advantages in terms of quality and productivity. Consultants warned that only a few global car groups would survive. Instead of following the Japanese concepts of lean production, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche and Audi developed a new innovative premium brand strategy and initiated a revolution in the industry by setting innovative benchmarks. This book analyzes the story.

The automobile sector is one of the most archetypal global industries and is seen by many as one of the main drivers behind the homogenization of world markets due to firms' internationalization strategies and the social practices that firms impose. This book argues that this is not entirely the case due to the heterogeneity of firms and the diversity of strategies pursued. It highlights the diversity and forms of internationalization and the preference for regionalization rather than globalization that has occurred over the past decade. This book looks specifically at the European car industry.

The lessons of Henry Ford, one of America's greatest business innovators, are as fresh and vital today as they were in 1922, when this extraordinary book was first published. Though the title suggests the autobiographical, this is in fact a bible of business philosophy from the man many considered "insane" for the very innovations we hail as visionary today: the assembly line, reduced working hours, a minimum wage, the five-day work week. Ford explains: . how his experiences as an employee influenced his philosophies as an employer . why saving money isn't always a good thing . the absolute worst time to approach a bank for a loan . why lowering prices below production costs can be a smart move . and much more. It's easy to see that much of Ford's wisdom has been forgotten today-and that individual entrepreneurs and global corporations alike would do well to take another look. American entrepreneur, inventor, and philanthropist HENRY FORD (1863-1947) was born in Michigan and trained as a machinist and engineer before founding, in 1903, the Ford Motor Company.

This book was born from curiosity. To begin with, it was the curiosity of an economist who studied in the 60's in an environment which has subsequently developed from national into global economics. Who has to recognize that politicians, scholars and large segments of society oblivious to supranational authorities and e- nomic globalization forces continue to labour under the notion that they are still fully autonomous and sovereign when shaping national economic policy. And pretend as though their own national state were still the "m- ter in its own house" that despite unbridled market economics could c- tinue to dictate to the economy and companies how to live and in which "rooms." All that has become fiction. The laws of globalization diminish the - noeuvring space for shaping national economic policy. Even if many folks today don't want to hear it: The issue is no longer achieving what is soc- politically desirable for the own society but rather the optimal adaptation of society and social benefits to the politically practicable.

As one of the first sectors affected by the current phase of crisis in capital accumulation, the automobile industry has had much to learn and now has much to teach. A recognition of the great diversity of forms of adaptation introduced to face the uncertainties of the market, lead to the formation of GERPISA and its international programme of research on the emergence of new industrial models. This book, a product of that research, is a valuable and timely insight into the innovations and adjustments of some of the major vehicular manufacturers and through them into the future of industry as a whole.

Originally published between 1956 and 1997, the volume in this set take the automobile industry experience as a basis for a wider view of industrial relations, trends and developments from the 1950s to the 1990s. They also analyse the emergence of new institutions and systems of labour-management relationships, examine the effects of automotion and technical change, the impact of fluctuations in the market for cars and wage trends. They discuss the car and its role in social, geographical and political change. The volumes provide: detailed surveys of some of the biggest post-war disputes and especially of trade union organization. the experience of individual firms, such as Austin, Ford and Fiat. comparative surveys of labour relationships in major car manufacturing countries such as the UK, USA, Germany and Japan. And include: material about the technology, design and production of cars and the ancillary fields of oil production, refining and road building.

Japanese carmaker Honda has pioneered a new breed of multinational enterprise - true manufacturing at the global scale. Honda has been a leader in confounding predictions that Japan's carmakers would and could never transfer their success abroad, and that a wholesale 'Japanization' of the west would be provoked if they did. The book covers manufacture, research and development, sourcing of components, human resources and labour relations, collaboration with western firms, political controversy, and the role of concepts and ideas, in Japan, North America, and Europe.

Motor vehicles are prominent among the flows of exports and/or imports for Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United States, and these trade flows are heavily influenced by the basic relative competitiveness of the production processes for automotive manufacturing. In this book the authors analyze the factors that contributed to the comparative cost competitiviness of the four countries' automotive industries over the period 1961-1984 and disentangle the factors contributing to the Japanese cost and efficiency advantages. The authors provide estimates of comparative costs of automobile production (both short-run and long-run) and the sources of these cost differences, based on the econometric cost function methodology. An innovation is the careful treatment of capacity utilization, one of the most important sources of short-run cost and efficiency differences. This methodology is also used effectively in an analysis of the Canada-U.S. Auto Pact, a unique experiment in trade liberalization. Previous estimates of cost and efficiency differences using the plant inspection and comparison of company financial reports methodologies are also evaluated.

In the 1950s, Brazil prohibited car imports and forced transnational auto companies either to abandon the market or manufacture vehicles within the country. Although currently contending approaches to economic development would suggest that this type of industrialization policy would fail in the political-economic context of postwar Brazil, the plan was successful according to a variety of criteria. The Brazilian auto industry would become the largest in the periphery. The book explains the economic and political motivations behind the plan, and why Brazil relied on foreign firms to do the job. It documents the bargaining process between the Brazilian government and transnational firms, estimates the cost incurred by the government as a result of the plan, and provides new archival evidence that shows that firms would not have invested without government pressure. It argues that the current, polarized debate on the role of the state in economic development must become more nuanced, as the Brazilian auto case suggests that the effectiveness of state policy can vary greatly across sectors and over time.

This book introduces the issues and problems that arise when implementing smart energy management for sustainable manufacturing in the automotive manufacturing industry and the analytical tools and applications to deal with them. It uses a number of illustrative examples to explain energy management in automotive manufacturing, which involves most types of manufacturing technology and various levels of energy consumption. It demonstrates how analytical tools can help improve energy management processes, including forecasting, consumption, and performance analysis, emerging new technology identification as well as investment decisions for establishing smart energy consumption practices. It also details practical energy management systems, making it a valuable resource for professionals involved in real energy management processes, and allowing readers to implement the procedures and applications presented.

Yang analyzes the impact of globalization on national economic boundaries, using the automobile industry to contrast three different economic systems. Corporations emerge as new players in international relations. Their corporate policies and manufacturer-supplier linkages influence the international division of labor among modern nations. Their competitive strategy affects the ability of governments to regulate national economies. Scholars in international, regional, and developmental economics will find this work provides interesting material on global competition.

In British political discourse the idea that in the 1970s trade unions 'ran the country' has become a truism, a folk mythology invoked against the twin perils of socialism and strikes. But who exactly wielded power in Britain's workplaces and on what terms? Assembling cultures takes a fine-grained look at factory activism in the motor industry between 1945 and 1982, using car manufacturing as a key case for unpicking important narratives around affluence, declinism and class. It traces the development of the militant car worker stereotype and looks at the real social relations that lay behind car manufacturing's reputation for conflict. In doing so, this book reveals a changing, complex world of social practices, cultural norms and shared values and expectations. From relatively meagre interwar trade union traditions, during the post-war period car workers developed shop-floor organisations of considerable authority, enabling some to make new demands of their working lives, but constraining others in their more radical political aims. Assembling cultures documents in detail a historic process where, from the 1950s, groups and individuals set about creating and reproducing collective power and asks what that meant for their lives. This is a story of workers and their place in the power relations of post-war Britain. This book will be invaluable to lecturers and students studying the history, sociology and politics of post-war Britain, particularly those with an interest in power, rationality, class, labour, gender and race. The detailed analysis of just how solidarity, organisation and collective action were generated will also prove useful to trade union activists. -- .

Competition, Power and Industrial Flexibility assesses the varying ways in which automobile assemblers in several countries of East and Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas have sought to enhance their efficiency and flexibility in response to heightened global competition during the 1980s and early 1990s. It then explores the implications of such managerial strategies for workers and trade unions, and the responses of unions in seeking to preserve or enhance worker welfare and voice under industrial restructuring.

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, lays out the secret of his success in My Life and Work. Born in 1863, Ford was a machinist and engineer by trade, but made his name as an extraordinarily successful businessman who, more than any other individual, was responsible for bringing the motor car into common use in America. Many of his pioneering manufacturing and labor practices are now commonplace - the assembly line, limited working hours, a minimum wage. He was a larger-than-life character who was rarely out of the headlines. My Life and Work is part memoir, part advice manual from the man who transformed the way America worked and lived.

"Economics at the Wheel" is about cars and driving, and all the problems that cars and drivers create for America. It explains actual government policy intended to reduce the damage cars and drivers do to us, and it explains why these government policies are almost all failures because they attack the wrong problem or attack it in the wrong way. The reader will come away with a much fuller understanding of air pollution, global warming, highway safety, auto insurance, gasoline taxation, rush-hour congestion, leaking underground storage tanks, and many other auto-related issues. It looks at common actions and circumstances from an economics perspective. It is readable with accessible prose style and few footnotes. It includes questions to provoke student thinking and boxed sections of side materials to stimulate discussions.

This book examines the most recent transformations in the automobile industry. In particular it analyzes the impact of the new forms of industrial restructuring on production organization and the organization of labor and employee relations within Fiat in Italy, Volkswagen in Brazil and Renault and MCC/Smart in France. These case studies illustrate the most recent radical changes in the industry (outsourcing and modular organisation) and show how they have affected lean production.

This book bring together the basic documents needed for reaching an informed judgment on the central ethical question in the Pinto case: did Ford Motor Company act ethically in designing the Pinto fuel system and in deciding not to upgrade the integrity of that system until 1978? The five parts of this book cover the case, cost-benefit analysis, whistle blowing, product liability, and government regulations.

The author captures the evolution of Indian industrial capitalism by extending the 'models of capitalism' and 'regulation framework'. Using principally the auto industry and anchoring the analysis to the expansion of markets, he demonstrates that the Indian state and businesses have been important institutions for creating markets. He acknowledges significant market growth, but also underscores several contradictions arising from such capitalist development. There is a wealth of data, which scholars, policymakers, and businesses will find very useful.

A detailed examination of China's increasingly important chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Numerous case studies describe how western companies, such as BASF, Bayer, Bicoll, Ciba, Degussa, DSM and Novartis are managing their market entry in China.