In 1903, before the Ford Motor Company was even incorporated, Stephen Tenvoorde signed a contract to sell "Fordmobiles"at his bicycle shop in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Four generations later, the Tenvoorde family still operates what is now the oldest Ford dealership in the world. Brian McMahon chronicles how the fortunes of the company and the state became intertwined during that century. Ford assembled Model T cars in the world's tallest automobile plant in Minneapolis and a three-story structure in St. Paul-both still standing. These factories quickly became functionally obsolete after the development of the moveable assembly line. The hunt for a new site to build a modern, single-story plant stirred intense rivalry between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Henry Ford took a rare personal interest in the search and selected a 125-acre parcel in St. Paul overlooking the recently built High Dam on the Mississippi River, which allowed for navigation and hydroelectric power. The Twin Cities Assembly Plant would go on to manufacture millions of cars, trucks, tractors, and military vehicles until its closure in 2011. Henry Ford's large-scale experiments with every aspect of the industrial economy sent ripples and shockwaves through the lives of Minnesotans-management and assembly line workers, dealers and customers, families and communities. First-person accounts of more than forty retired auto workers share what it was like to work at Ford-from the early years of the Minneapolis plant to the final hours of the Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul. McMahon documents the company's transformation-through the Depression, the rise of the United Auto Workers Union, World War II, women joining the workforce, competition from imported cars, globalization, outsourcing, and the closing of the plant. This publication was made possible in part by the people of Minnesota through a grant funded by an appropriation to the Minnesota Historical Society from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Any views, findings, opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the State of Minnesota, the Minnesota Historical Society, or the Minnesota Historic Resources Advisory Committee.

In Velocity: From the Front Line to the Bottom Line, retail automotive expert Dale Pollak reveals how dealers in today's pre-owned automotive marketplace can shift out of low gear toward accelerated profits. Today's dealers are facing increased competition brought on by Internet shopping. Pollak delivers a gut check to dealers employing traditional used car disciplines while revealing new strategies that turn money-losing departments into profit-generating winners. "The used vehicle marketplace is less giving and less forgiving than it's ever been before. Astute, investment-minded management processes are essential for today's dealers to survive and thrive," says Pollak.

This is a brilliant examination of the complex processes of the post-1990 transformation in the Czech automotive industry and its selective integration into the West European system. The post-1990 restructuring of the industry is analyzed in the context of its pre-1990 development and in the context of the East European automobile industry as a whole. Specifically, the book examines the development and post-1990 restructuring of the Czech car, components, and truck industries.

In Velocity: From the Front Line to the Bottom Line, retail automotive expert Dale Pollak reveals how dealers in today's pre-owned automotive marketplace can shift out of low gear toward accelerated profits. Today's dealers are facing increased competition brought on by Internet shopping. Pollak delivers a gut check to dealers employing traditional used car disciplines while revealing new strategies that turn money-losing departments into profit-generating winners. The used vehicle marketplace is less giving and less forgiving than it's ever been before. Astute, investment-minded management processes are essential for today's dealers to survive and thrive, says Pollak.

In 1996, Darius Mehri traveled to Japan to work as a computer simulation engineer within the Toyota production system. Once there, he found a corporate experience far different from what he had expected. Notes from Toyota-land, based on a diary that Mehri kept during his three years at an upper-level Toyota group company, provides a unique insider's perspective on daily work life in Japan and charts his transformation from a wide-eyed engineer eager to be part of the "Japanese Miracle" to a social critic, troubled by Japanese corporate practices.Mehri documents the sophisticated "culture of rules" and organizational structure that combine to create a profound control over workers. The work group is cynically used to encourage employees to work harder and harder, he found, and his other discoveries confirmed his doubts about the working conditions under the Japanese Miracle. For example, he learned that male employees treated their female counterparts as short-term employees, cheap labor, and potential wives. Mehri also describes a surprisingly unhealthy work environment, a high rate of injuries due to inadequate training, fast line speeds, crowded factories, racism, and lack of team support. And in conversations with his colleagues, he uncovered a culture of intimidation, subservience, and vexed relationships with many aspects of their work and surroundings. As both an engaging memoir of cross-cultural misunderstanding and a primer on Japanese business and industrial practices, Notes from Toyota-land will be a revelation to everyone who believes that Japanese business practices are an ideal against which to measure success.

Most great figures in American history reveal great contradictions, and Henry Ford is no exception. He championed his workers, offering unprecedented wages, yet crushed their attempts to organize. Virulently anti-Semitic, he never employed fewer than 3,000 Jews. An outspoken pacifist, he made millions producing war materials. He urbanized the modern world, and then tried to drag it back into a romanticized rural past he'd helped to destroy.
As the American auto industry struggles to reinvent itself, Vincent Curcio's timely biography offers a wealth of new insight into the man who started it all. Henry Ford not only founded Ford Motor Company but institutionalized assembly line production and, some would argue, created the American middle class. By constantly improving his product and increasing sales, Ford was able to lower the price of the automobile until it became a universal commodity. He paid his workers so well that, for the first time in history, the people who manufactured a complex industrial product could own one. This was "Fordism"--social engineering on a vast scale. But, as Curcio displays, Ford's anti-Semitism would forever stain his reputation. Hitler admired him greatly, both for his anti-Semitism and his autocratic leadership, displaying Ford's picture in his bedroom and keeping a copy of Ford's MyLife and Work by his bedside. Nevertheless, Ford's economic and social initiatives, as well as his deft handling of his public image, kept his popularity high among Americans. He offered good pay, good benefits, English language classes, and employment for those who struggled to find jobs--handicapped, African-American, and female workers. Such was his popularity that in 1923, the homespun, clean-living, xenophobic Henry Ford nearly won the Republican presidential nomination.
This new volume in the Lives and Legacies series explores the full impact of Ford's indisputable greatness, the deep flaws that complicate his legacy, and what he means for our own time.

This volume contains articles from leading analysts and researchers on sustainable transportation, who provide critical reflections on how automobile-related climate policies have evolved up to now in Europe and around the world, in view of the widely recognized need to substantially curb global emissions of greenhouse gases in the coming decades. Authors describe the policies which have been most effective, outline their economic and social implications, present success stories while critically reviewing less successful examples, and suggest strategies to decarbonize passenger transportation on a global scale.

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.

This book presents topics on monitoring and evaluation of production processes in the automotive industry. Regulation of production processes is also described in details. The text deals with the implementation and evaluation of these processes during the mass production of components useful in the automotive industry. It evaluates the effects and results achieved after implementation in practice. The book takes into account the different methodologies of the world's automakers and applicable standards, such as standard EN ISO 9001 and the requirements of VDA and ISO/TS 16949. The content is used to those working with the development, production and quality control of new products in the demanding automotive industry. The information provided may also be useful to engineers and technical staff in organizations working with series production and production of spare parts for the automotive and other demanding industries. The content presented was written based on discussions with various companies and organizations, such as Magna Steyr (Graz, Austria), Ford (Cologne, Germany; Prague, CZ), GM Powertrain (Gyor, Hungary), VW (Skoda), ZF (Passau, Friedrichshafen, Germany), Bosch-Rexroth AG (Fellbach, Germany), John Deere (Mannheim, Germany; USA), Claas (Paderborn, Germany), Allison Transmission (USA), Landini (Reggio Emilia, Milan, Italy), Timken Polska (Sosnowiec, Poland), SNR France (Annecy, France), Sweden SKF Group (Lutsk, Ukraine), ZVL Ltd. (Hattingen, Germany), ZVL SpA (Milano, Italy), FAG Schaeffler Group (Debrecen, Hungary), VPZ (Vologda, Russia), ZKL OJSC (Brno, CZ), ZVL Auto Company Ltd. (Presov, Slovakia), ZVL (Zilina, Slovakia), MAN (Munich, Germany), FTE Automotive (Kerpen, Germany), Roesler (Untermerzbach, Germany; Vienna, Austria), Spaleck (Bocholt, Germany) and Caterpillar (USA). This comprehensive study was supported by grant VEGA 1/0409/13.

The automobile industry is evolving rapidly on a worldwide basis. All of the biggest, most successful firms have become totally global in nature. Plunkett's Automobile Industry Almanac will be your complete guide to this immense, fascinating industry. This exciting new book is a complete reference tool for everything you need to know about the car, truck and specialty vehicles business, including: Automotive industry trends and market research, mergers and acquisitions, globalization, automobile manufacturers, truck makers, specialty vehicles such as RVs, automobile finance and other financial services, dealerships, components manufacturers, retail auto parts stores, e-commerce and more. We discuss in detail developments in China, India and other emerging markets, collaboration and partnerships between auto makers, as well as batteries, hybrids and plug in hybrid vehicles (PHEV). This book includes extensive statistical tables, an automobile industry glossary, industry contacts and indexes. The corporate profile section of the book includes our proprietary, in-depth profiles of the 400 leading companies in all facets of the automobile industry. You'll find a complete overview, industry analysis and market research report in one superb, value-priced package.

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.