India is witnessing a unique moment in populism, with sentiments divided between economic reforms that promise fast industrialization and protests that thwart such industrialization. This book offers an ethnographic study of divergent local responses to the proposed construction of a Tata Motors factory in eastern India that would have produced the Nano, the so-called people's car. Initial excitement was followed by long protests among the villagers whose agricultural land was being acquired for the project. After these protests secured the relocation of the factory, further demonstrations followed, sometimes involving the same participants, seeking to bring the factory back. People's Car explores this ambivalence concerning industrialization, asking why long drawn resistances against corporate industrialization coexist with political rhetoric and slogans promoting fast-paced industrialization. Majumder argues that such contradictory rhetoric and promises target divided sentiments in rural India where land is incommensurable with money and a site specially marked by desire for middle caste small landowners aspiring to futures beyond agriculture. Previous studies of industrialization have generally focused on either demands for development or populist critiques. Moving beyond romantic cliches about urban/rural divisions, People's Car offers a single analytical and ethnographic framework demonstrating how pro- and anti-industrialization forces feed off each other.

It is a bedrock American belief: the 1950s were a golden age of prosperity for autoworkers. Flush with high wages and enjoying the benefits of generous union contracts, these workers became the backbone of a thriving blue-collar middle class. It is also a myth. Daniel J. Clark began by interviewing dozens of former autoworkers in the Detroit area and found a different story--one of economic insecurity caused by frequent layoffs, unrealized contract provisions, and indispensable second jobs. Disruption in Detroit is a vivid portrait of workers and an industry that experienced anything but stable prosperity. As Clark reveals, the myths--whether of rising incomes or hard-nosed union bargaining success--came later. In the 1950s, ordinary autoworkers, union leaders, and auto company executives recognized that although jobs in their industry paid high wages, they were far from steady and often impossible to find.

This monograph adresses the challenge of the environmental assessment of leightweight electric vehicles. It poses the question whether the use of lightweight materials in electric vehicles can reduce the vehicles' environmental impact and compares the environmental performance of a lightweight electric vehicle (LEV) to other types of vehicles. The topical approach focuses on methods from life cycle assessment (LCA), and the book concludes with a comprehensive concept on the environmental assessment of LEVs. The target audience primarily comprises LCA practitioners from research institutes and industry, but it may also be beneficial for graduate students specializing in the field of environmental assessment.

Cordoba is Argentina's second-largest city, a university town that became the center of its automobile industry. In the decade following the overthrow of Juan Peron's government in 1955, the city experienced rapid industrial growth. The arrival of IKA-Renault and Fiat fostered a particular kind of industrial development and created a new industrial worker of predominantly rural origins. Former farm boys and small-town dwellers were thrust suddenly into the world of the modern factory and the multinational corporation. The domination of the local economy by a single industry and the prominent role played by the automobile workers' unions brought about the greatest working-class protest in postwar Latin American history, the 1969 Cordobazo. Following the Cordobazo, the local labor movement was one characterized by intense militancy and determined opposition to both authoritarian military governments and the Peronist trade union bureaucracy. These labor wars have been mythologized as a Latin American equivalent to the French student strikes of May-June 1968 and the Italian "hot summer" of the same period. Analyzing these events in the context of recent debates on Latin American working-class politics, Brennan demonstrates that the pronounced militancy and even political radicalism of the Cordoban working class were due not only to Argentina's changing political culture but also to the dynamic relationship between the factory and society during those years. Brennan draws on corporate archives in Argentina, France, and Italy, as well as previously unknown union archives. Readers interested in Latin American studies, labor history, industrial relations, political science, industrialsociology, and international business will all find value in this important analysis of labor politics.

The life and history of Pirelli encompass three centuries - a remarkable period of time. This extensive study by Professor Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini explores the corporate values and the managers' profiles that have made this extraordinary outcome possible. With exclusive access to the Pirelli Foundation archives and previously unseen correspondence and interviews, Pirelli: Technology and Passion provides a never-before-seen window into the construction of this global corporation. This striking hardback follows the company history of Pirelli and illuminates the key ingredients of its lasting success. From the incorporation and the establishment of the first factory in Milan in 1872, through rapid international development, and up to its current status as a multinational corporation with 22 factories in 13 different countries around the world, Pirelli: Technology and Passion tells a story of entrepreneurs, managers, engineers, researchers and workers who all contribute to an enduring corporate identity.

This is the first book on the global auto industry viewed through the lens of technology. It starts by tracing how innovation shaped the first century of its history, then it examines the industry's shifting footprint in Europe and North America, and the rise of new producers, particularly China. Succeeding chapters emphasize the role of suppliers in what is now a high-tech industry. This book describes new forms of collaboration that challenge traditional supply chain relations, analyzing regulation as a driver of innovation, and the enabling role of the materials science revolution, such as the shift of steel from a commodity to a highly engineered product. It covers innovations in management, from computer-aided engineering, roadmapping, and just-in-time methods to the evolving role of workers and public policy. The authors finish with an overview of electric vehicles, shared mobility, and autonomous vehicles, concluding that they will not prove disruptive.

The application of systems theory to today's businesses is a direct result of the enhancements that stem from globalization. In order to remain competitive in the new global environment, companies must alter their managerial methods and strategies. Systemic Approaches to Strategic Management: Examples from the Automotive Industry addresses the issues that industrial companies face in the current era of globalization and how the application of systems theory has affected their performance. Highlighting issues such as theoretical approaches of systems theory, production strategies, and organizational structure, this book is a pivotal reference source for practitioners, students, engineers, technicians, business managers, and economists interested in systems theory application in the management of industrial companies.

The motor vehicle industry is one of the world's largest. More than 1 billion vehicles are in use around the world, and 80 million are produced and sold annually. Motor vehicles including passenger cars, trucks, and commercial vehicles such as buses and taxis are the principal means by which people and goods are transported within and between most communities in the world. The motor vehicle industry includes corporations that design, develop, and manufacture cars and trucks. These carmakers, such as Ford and Toyota, are among the world's most-familiar corporate brands. The motor vehicle industry also encompasses less well-known businesses including several thousand parts makers, tens of thousands of retailers, and specialized lending agencies. The importance of the motor vehicle industry transcends even its central role in the global economy. The industry was responsible for many of the fundamental innovations of twentieth-century production, such as corporate organization, manufacturing processes, and labor relations, as well as sales innovations, such as product branding and consumer financing. In the twenty-first century, the motor vehicle industry has been a leader in adopting new production strategies and expanding into new markets. This book will cover the history, operations and manufacturing processes, organization, supply chain, key competitors, market and ultra-market forces, regulation, recent innovations and challenges, and the future of the industry.

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.

Velocity 2.0: Paint, Pixels, & Profitability is the second book from retail automotive industry expert, entrepreneur and former dealer, Dale Pollak. The book picks up where Dale's Velocity: From the Front Line to the Bottom Line leaves off, revealing new ROI-based management metrics and processes dealers can use to operate more efficient and profitable used vehicle departments. The book flows from the recognition that today s used vehicle marketplace is more challenging and volatile than it s ever been a tough reality driven by the power of the Internet and a troubled economy. Velocity 2.0 offers a playbook of best practices and processes to help dealers become more successful.

The authors point out the entire business orientated automotive value chain. With regard to the finance perspective these elements of the value chain are scrutinized chapter by chapter. Current trends in new mobility concepts, cross-industry strategic alliances as well as requirements for product launch, especially in the BRIC countries, are highlighted. The book provides the link between science and business practice in the automotive industry.

In Outraged, an auto insider provides an inspiring account of what it means to lose your rights, property, and, in essence, the American dream. It begins with roughly two thousand men and women whose companies were destroyed by two automakers, General Motors and Chrysler, during their government-led corporate restructurings in 2009. Authors Tamara Darvish, vice president of DARCARS Automotive in Maryland, and Lillie Guyer, a Detroit area automotive journalist, show the collapse of the American dream from the perspective of an entrepreneur who was affected by the automotive industry bailout. In this featurized business story, Outraged details the founding of the activist group Committee to Restore Dealer Rights and its efforts to regain the economic rights of auto dealerships throughout the United States. It tells how they took their fight to Congress and to the steps of the White House. Outraged candidly examines the battles between dealers and the entities that engineered their demise. It also details the pain and the high points in government as its temporary power brokers ignore the significant role of Congress in lawmaking and the rights of ordinary citizens. This personal, controversial account shows what can happen when people unite in a common cause and stand up for what they believe is right.

In Outraged, an auto insider provides an inspiring account of what it means to lose your rights, property, and, in essence, the American dream. It begins with roughly two thousand men and women whose companies were destroyed by two automakers, General Motors and Chrysler, during their government-led corporate restructurings in 2009. Authors Tamara Darvish, vice president of DARCARS Automotive in Maryland, and Lillie Guyer, a Detroit area automotive journalist, show the collapse of the American dream from the perspective of an entrepreneur who was affected by the automotive industry bailout. In this featurized business story, Outraged details the founding of the activist group Committee to Restore Dealer Rights and its efforts to regain the economic rights of auto dealerships throughout the United States. It tells how they took their fight to Congress and to the steps of the White House. Outraged candidly examines the battles between dealers and the entities that engineered their demise. It also details the pain and the high points in government as its temporary power brokers ignore the significant role of Congress in lawmaking and the rights of ordinary citizens. This personal, controversial account shows what can happen when people unite in a common cause and stand up for what they believe is right.

"This book will enlighten individuals to the experience of purchasing a vehicle. It is a great way to get families started on their auto-buying journey and shows the experience as a relationship and not just a vehicle purchase." ~ Automobile Dealership Owner My Automobile Dealership is an inspirational story which reveals how a young mother benefited from a long-term relationship with her automobile dealership on her road to success. While this story is a joy to read, it represents the major commitment dealerships have to provide quality vehicles, superior service and customer satisfaction. The story, coupled with educational materials in the back of the book, are designed to support individuals and families as they go through the auto-buying experience.

Autos and Progress studies the automobile as both a tool and a cultural symbol of Brazil's status as a modern "developed" nation. As such it addresses debates on state-making, the role of multi-national corporations in the region, middle-class consumerism, working-class politics, and sports and leisure in the crafting of national identity, among others. Such a study is key for understanding the twentieth century because auto-based transportation became the central facet of Brazilian attempts to gain control over its massive national space. The most obvious expressions of this include the building of Brasilia to be the new, interior national capital, the extensive road building throughout the Amazon in the 1970s, the nation's development of one of the world's leading alternative fuel industries, Brazilian dominance in world Formula One racing, and the fact that the current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is a former auto worker and trade union leader. This focus on Brazilians' fascination with automobiles and their reliance on auto production and consumption as keys to their economic and social transformation, explains how Brazil - which enshrined its belief in science and technology in its national slogan of Order and Progress - has differentiated itself from other Latin American nations. This embrace of automobility allowed the Brazilian elite to use industrialism and the increased mobility of an auto-based society to attempt to remake the nation's poor into a more homogeneous population. Autos and Progress engages key issues in the Brazil around the meaning and role of race in society and also addresses several classic debates in Brazilian studies about the nature of Brazil's great size and diversity and how they shaped state-making. Autos and Progress unifies Brazilian economics, politics, and culture in the twentieth century. It provides a unique historical context for understanding Brazilian modernism in politics and culture. Moreover, by analyzing the origins of auto-oriented industrialism and consumerism, the book is an economic, cultural and social history of Brazilian attempts to remake the nation into a middle-class democracy. This aspect of the study presents a new interpretation for the rise of Brazil's New Unionism, which was born in Brazil's auto, truck, and bus factories. It also provides important context for understanding the place of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party) in national politics and culture, and the rise of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former auto worker.

Trust and Power argues that corporations have faced conflicts with the very consumers whose loyalty they sought. The book provides novel insights into the dialogue between modern corporations and consumers by examining automobiles during the 20th century. In the new market at the turn of the century, automakers produced defective cars, and consumers faced risks of physical injuries as well as financial losses. By the 1920s automobiles were sold in a mass market where state agencies intervened to monitor, however imperfectly, product quality and fair pricing mechanisms. After 1945, the market matured as most U.S. families came to rely on auto transport. Automakers sold a product suited to the unequal distribution of income. Again, the state intervened to regulate relations between buyers and sellers in terms of who had access to credit, and thus the ability to purchase expensive durables like automobiles.

This is the story of struggles against management regimes in the car industry in Britain from the period after the Second World War until the contemporary regime of lean production. Told from the viewpoint of the workers, the book chronicles how workers responded to a variety of management and union strategies, from piece rate working, through measured day work, and eventually to lean production beginning in the late 1980s. The book focuses on two companies, Vauxhall-GM and Rover/BMW, and how they developed their aroaches to managing labour relations. Worker responses to these are intimately tied to changing patterns of exploitation in the industry. The book highlights the relative success of various forms of struggle to establish safer and more humane working environments. The contributors bring together original research gathered over two decades, plus exclusive surveys of workers in four automotive final assembly plants over a ten year period.

This history tells the relatively unknown story of how the Detroit automobile industry played a major role in the 1933 banking crisis and the subsequent New Deal reforms that drastically changed the financial industry. Spurred by failed decision making by automobile industry leaders, Detroit banks experienced a critical emergency, precipitating the federal closure of banks on March 4, 1933, the first in a series of actions by which the federal government acquired power over economics previously held by states and private industrial and financial interests.

It's 1901 and a guy named Harley has an idea. Put an engine on a bicycle. What? Outside his door, carts are still pulled by horses and autos are a rare sight, for goodness' sake. It's 1908 and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle sets a record by getting 188 miles to a gallon of gas. It's 1909 and the company introduces something new to its line: a V-Twin cylinder engine. Fast forward to the twenty-first century, and the technical innovation hasn't stopped. But there's a lot more than just choppers in the mix. Examples: The Harley-Davidson racing team adds a seventeen-year-old girl to the roster. 250,000 people help celebrate Harley's 100th anniversary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And a museum devoted to the company's products opens up. Clearly, this is a company unlike any other.

How did Harley do it? How did it go from making motorcycles to creating a Harley experience that puts hundreds of thousands of people aged sixteen to one hundred on the road traveling to events each year where they can meet company officials and other Harley riders? That's what this book is all about. Honda may match Harley-Davidson for quality and perhaps innovation, but no one has matched the company for its ability to create 'buzz marketing' and turn casual riders into unofficial sales people. Harley-Davidson, it turns out, isn't just in the motorcycle business. As its mission statement points out, it's in the business of fulfilling dreams. As author Missy Scott shows, Harley-Davidson is a rare company in other ways: Its loyal workforce, for one thing, is guided by principles like trust and respect for the individual. For another, the company has made a superb effort to keep jobs in the U.S., when it would be far cheaper and easier to use offshore labor. Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in the early 1980s, Harley has roared back to capture the hearts of riders the world over, including the million-plus members of the Harley Owners Group (members are known, naturally, as HOGs). This book: -Explains the importance of the company and the essential disruptions that changed business forever. -Details Harley's origins and history. -Presents biographies of the founders and the historical context in which they launched the company. -Explains Harley's strategies and innovations. -Assesses Harley's impact on society, technology, processes, and work methods. -Details financial results over the years. -Predicts Harley's future prospects and successes. In addition, Scott offers special features that include a look at the colorful people associated with Harley, interesting trivia, a Harley-Davidson time line, a focus on products, a look at how the company treats its workers, what its detractors have to say, and where the company is headed. Harley-Davidson--a company that changed, and is changing, the world.

Toyota rose from the ashes of World War II to become, just fifty years later, one of the dominant automakers in the world. How did Toyota do it? How did it go from making cars that Westerners pointed to and laughed at to making cars, like the Lexus, that people now lust after? That's what this book is all about. As veteran writer K. Dennis Chambers shows, Toyota, crazy like a fox, had a long-term plan to become a top-tier player in the auto industry. Through patience, persistence, and a willingness to dream of a different future as well as to look back to the past for ideas, Toyota has succeeded step by step. Yes, Toyota is unique. From peddling ugly 3-cylinder cars to working with quality guru W. Edwards Deming (when his U.S. countrymen thought him a crank) to totally revamping production processes, Toyota has never been afraid to chart its own path. Readers will learn what makes Toyota tick through Chambers's penetrating text, which: -Explains the importance of the company and the essential disruptions that changed business forever. (Think Prius.) -Details Toyota's origins and history. -Presents biographies of the founders and the historical context in which they launched the company. -Explains Toyota's strategies and innovations. -Assesses Toyota's impact on society, technology, processes, methods, etc. -Shows how Toyota beat the competition and wormed its way into the U.S. and European markets. -Details financial results. In addition, Chambers offers special features that include a look at the colorful people associated with Toyota, interesting trivia, a Toyota time line, a focus on products, a look at how the company treats and trains its workers, and where the company is headed. Toyota-a company that changed, and is changing, the world.

Toyota rose from the ashes of World War II to become, just fifty years later, one of the dominant automakers in the world. How did Toyota do it? How did it go from making cars that Westerners pointed to and laughed at to making cars, like the Lexus, that people now lust after? That's what this book is all about. As veteran writer K. Dennis Chambers shows, Toyota, crazy like a fox, had a long-term plan to become a top-tier player in the auto industry. Through patience, persistence, and a willingness to dream of a different future as well as to look back to the past for ideas, Toyota has succeeded step by step. Yes, Toyota is unique. From peddling ugly 3-cylinder cars to working with quality guru W. Edwards Deming (when his U.S. countrymen thought him a crank) to totally revamping production processes, Toyota has never been afraid to chart its own path. Readers will learn what makes Toyota tick through Chambers's penetrating text, which: -Explains the importance of the company and the essential "disruptions" that changed business forever. (Think Prius.) -Details Toyota's origins and history. -Presents biographies of the founders and the historical context in which they launched the company. -Explains Toyota's strategies and innovations. -Assesses Toyota's impact on society, technology, processes, methods, etc. -Shows how Toyota beat the competition and wormed its way into the U.S. and European markets. -Details financial results. In addition, Chambers offers special features that include a look at the colorful people associated with Toyota, interesting trivia, a Toyota time line, a focus on products, a look at how the company treats and trains its workers, and where the company is headed.Toyota--a company that changed, and is changing, the world.