Nearly every country that produces cars views the automobile industry as strategically important because of its direct economic significance and because it serves as a bell-weather for innovation in employment conditions. In this book, industrial relations experts from eleven countries consider the state of the industry worldwide. They are particularly interested in assessing whether the loudly heralded model of lean production initiated by Toyota has become pervasive.

The contributors focus on employment practices: the way work is organized, how workers and managers interact, the way worker representatives respond to lean production strategies, and the nature of the adaptation and innovation process itself. Global competition and changing technological possibilities are pressuring other industries to transform their employment practices and the auto industry may be an important harbinger of what is to come.

This study of CAMI Automotive, a unionized joint venture between General Motors and Suzuki, is the most comprehensive ever undertaken of a lean production plant. James Rinehart, Christopher Huxley, and David Robertson address a topic that has inspired fierce debate in industrial relations, sociology, labor studies, and human resource management. Heralded as a model of lean production when it opened in 1989, CAMI promised workers something different from traditional plants a humane environment, empowerment, and cooperative labor-management relations. However, the enthusiasm workers felt during the orientation and early phases of production steadily declined, as did their involvement in participatory activities. Workers came to describe CAMI as "just another car factory." Union challenges and shopfloor resistance to key elements of the lean system grew, capped by a five-week strike in 1992. The authors attribute workers' disillusionment to lean production itself rather than to North American managers' inadequate implementation."

Henry Martyn Leland (1843-1932) is one of the most outstanding figures in automotive history. Best known for developing the Cadillac and the Lincoln, Leland was among the pioneers who set Detroit on its course as the automobile capital of the world. Master of Precision is the fascinating first hand account of Leland's life and work during the early days of the automobile industry. Trained in New England factories known for their precision manufacturing, Henry Leland was an expert machinist before he began to reshape automobile production. Affectionately called "Uncle Henry" and the "Grand Old Man of Detroit," he was a demanding but highly-respected employer who set new standards of precision, quality, and performance. First published in 1966 by Wayne State University Press, Master of Precision was re-released in 1996 in celebration of the centennial of automobile manufacturing in North America.

In Comeback, Pulitzer Prize-winners Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B. White take us to the boardrooms, the executive offices, and the shop floors of the auto business to reconstruct, in riveting detail, how America's premier industry stumbled, fell, and picked itself up again. The story begins in 1982, when Honda started building cars in Marysville, Ohio, and the entire U.S. car industry seemed to be on the brink of extinction. It ends just over a decade later, with a remarkable turn of the tables, as Japan's car industry falters and America's Big Three emerge as formidable global competitors.

Comeback is a story propelled by larger-than-life characters -- Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, Don Petersen, Roger Smith, among many others -- and their greed, pride, and sheer refusal to face facts. But it is also a story full of dedicated, unlikely heroes who struggled to make the Big Three change before it was too late.

The presence of Japan Inc. looms larger than ever for millions of American managers and workers, as hundreds of Japanese companies open plants and offices in local communities across the United States. What is it like to work for the Japanese? Can Americans, with their strong tradition of individualism, adjust to a Japanese "team system" that emphasizes harmony and close cooperation? How do Americans and Japanese resolve the misunderstandings that arise from differences in language and culture? Journalists Joseph and Suzy Fucini sought the answers by studying relations between Americans and Japanese at the Mazda plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, the first wholly-owned Japanese auto plant to employ a unionized American workforce. For three years, the Fucinis followed events at the plant, interviewing more than one hundred workers, managers and outside suppliers. The authors conclude that for all its strengths, the team system requires the sacrifice of individual interests to the good of the group, and that no matter how hard an individual tries to become part of the Mazda team, advancement for both managers and workers will be limited by the fact that they are not Japanese.

In this sweeping cultural history, James Flink provides a fascinating account of the creation of the world's first automobile culture. He offers both a critical survey of the development of automotive technology and the automotive industry and an analysis of the social effects of "automobility" on workers and consumers.James J. Flink is an affiliate of the Institute of Transportation Studies and Professor of Comparative Culture at the University of California, Irvine.

Despite the economic and political importance of the U.S.-Japan relationship and the extensive attention paid to automotive trade, few American scholars or policy makers are familiar with the history of Japanese government-business relations, either generally or for specific industries such as passenger cars. This book hopefully helps in a small way to fill that gap in our knowledge and, thus, to help strengthen the foundation from which we make public policy decisions about bilateral trade. [ix]

Automotive Health ermoeglicht den Menschen, ihre Gesundheit wahrend der Fahrt zu erfassen und damit praventive oder kurative Massnahmen einzuleiten. Das Konzept unterstutzt dabei den selbstbestimmten Umgang mit der eigenen Gesundheit. In diesem essential werden die Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie vorgestellt, die die Kundenbedurfnisse nach Automotive Health untersucht und herausgestellt hat, welchen Einfluss z. B. der Gesundheitszustand oder die digitale Affinitat auf die Nutzenbereitschaft von digitalen Gesundheitsangeboten im Auto haben. Die Autoren: Julia van Berck M.Sc. ist Projektmanagerin fur Kooperationen im Gesundheits- und Sozialwesen an der FOM Hochschule fur Oekonomie & Management. Dr. med. Manfred Knye ist Leiter des Projekts Einfuhrung Exoskelette, Digitalisierung und Automotive Health der Volkswagen AG und beschaftigt sich mit dem Thema Gesundheit 4.0. Prof. Dr. David Matusiewicz ist Direktor des Instituts fur Gesundheit & Soziales (ifgs) und Dekan des Hochschulbereiches Gesundheit & Soziales an der FOM Hochschule fur Oekonomie & Management.

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.

Lavishly illustrated with unique images from the official company archive, this book charts more than 100 years of car-making at the Longbridge factory, near Birmingham. Herbert Austin founded the Austin Motor Company here in April 1905 and it was subsequently home to the British Motor Corporation, British Leyland, Rover Group and, latterly, MG Rover. Its products include some of the most famous British models ever produced, such as the pioneering Austin Seven, the innovative trend-setting Mini, the popular Austin Metro and, in later years, the best-selling MG TF and elegant Rover 75. The factory was a major employer and an integral part of the local community from its beginnings until the sad events of April 2005, when MG Rover went into administration. This radically changed the landscape, spearheading the long-term regeneration of the area. The community is looking to the future with confidence, never forgetting its long and proud tradition of manufacturing. This fully updated version honours the 110th anniversary of the first motor production at Longbridge as well as the 150th birthday of Herbert Austin. It includes a new colour section showing various stages in the life of a car, from the design studio to the showroom.

A shocking expose of Volkswagen's fraud by the New York Times reporter who covered the scandal. Updated with a New Afterword by the Author. When news of Volkswagen's clean diesel fraud first broke in September 2015, it sent shockwaves around the world. Overnight, the company long associated with quality, reliability and trust became a universal symbol of greed and deception. Consumers were outraged, investors panicked, the company embarrassed and facing bankruptcy. As lawsuits and criminal investigations piled up, by August 2016 VW had settled with American regulators and car-owners for $15 billion, with additional fines and claims still looming. In Faster, Higher, Farther, Jack Ewing rips the lid off the scandal. He describes VW's rise from "the people's car" during the Nazi era to one of Germany's most prestigious and important global brands, touted for being "green." He paints vivid portraits of Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech and chief executive Martin Winterkorn, arguing that their unremitting ambition drove employees, working feverishly in pursuit of impossible sales targets, to illegal methods. With unprecedented access to key players and a ringside seat during the course of the legal proceedings, Faster, Higher, Farther reveals how the succeed-at-all-costs culture prevalent in modern boardrooms led to one of corporate history's farthest-reaching cases of fraud-with potentially devastating consequences. As the future of one of the world's biggest companies remains uncertain, this is the extraordinary story of Volkswagen's downfall.

"American Independent Automakers 1945-1960" covers the attempts by major makes such as Kaiser-Frazer, Willys, Packard, Studebaker, Tucker, Nash and Hudson to compete with the 'Big Three' in America. The 'Independents' were the first to introduce all-new models in an attempt to increase their market share and ensure the future. Also, there were dozens of backyard enthusiasts trying to design the perfect American sports car, such as Cunningham, Fitch, Darrin, Williams, etc. A similar number endeavoured to build small, economical cars such as Davis, Allstate, Playboy, Crosley and the diminutive King Midget, yet all were ultimately doomed to fail. There were steam cars, microcars, three-wheel cars and flying cars, all competing to capture the consumer's fancy and become significant builders in the years following World War II. Detailed captions and supportive text combine with the use of contemporary brochures, period literature, factory photos, and over 90 new, unpublished colour photos of restored examples to relate the importance of these historic vehicles. This book looks at all the major makers, focusing on the innovations, unique styling and features, and why, ultimately, all failed.

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.

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. -- .

The Color Line and the Assembly Line tells a new story of the impact of mass production on society. Global corporations, based originally in the United States, have played a part in making gender and race everywhere. Focusing on Ford Motor Company's rise to become the largest, richest, and most influential corporation in the world, The Color Line and the Assembly Line takes on the traditional story of Fordism. Contrary to popular thought the assembly line was perfectly compatible with all manner of racial practice in the United States, Brazil, and South Africa. Each country's distinct forms of racial hierarchies in the 1920s and 1930s informed Ford's often divisive labor processes. Confirming racism as an essential component in the creation of global capitalism, Elizabeth Esch also adds an important new lesson showing how local patterns gave capitalism its distinctive features.

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.

"A profound exploration into the decline of factory labor in the U.S. . . . Hers is one of those rare books that brilliantly illuminates current transformations in the organization of work and work lives."--Fred Block, author of "Postindustrial Possibilities

"Part ethnography and part contemporary labor history, Milkman's wonderful book will be required reading for anyone concerned with the transformation American industry has undergone in the past twenty years and what this transformation has meant for American workers."--David Brody, author of "Workers in Industrial America

"Behind all of the statistics on downsizing, the shrinking of our industrial base, and the folly of short-sighted management is the human drama of working women and men and their unions, struggling for dignity, fairness, and security. In "Farewell to the Factory, Ruth Milkman tells us the stories of workers in a New Jersey auto plant. Milkman's scholarship makes a valuable contribution to the national conversation on restoring the American Dream for working families."--John J. Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO

"A fascinating case study of deindustrialization and restructuring by one of the leading social historians of the auto industry. The book is a great read and should be widely adopted in the classroom."--Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley

"Milkman's impressive study probes the contemporary meaning of work, freedom and dignity in a fashion both sociologically rigorous and culturally evocative. Avoiding liberal nostalgia over the demise of industial America, Milkman deploys a magnificantly textured set of interviews to demonstrate that auto workers hated the chronic stress and humiliation offactory work even as they clung to its high pay and good benefits."--Nelson Lichtenstein, author of "The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor

The automotive industry ranks among the most significant business phenomena of the 20th century and remains vitally important today, accounting for almost 11% of the GDP of North America, Europe and Japan and one in nine jobs. Although its products have had a fundamental impact on modern society in economic and social terms, the industry has found it hard to adjust to contemporary conditions and is thus no longer esteemed in capital markets. Riven with internal contradictions that inhibit reform, it now faces a stark choice between years of strife or radical change. Highlighting the challenges and opportunities that exist for managers, legislators, financial institutions and potential industry entrants, this book is a wake-up call for those who work in the automotive industry. Most of all, it gives us all cause to reflect on the value of mobility, today and tomorrow. Graeme Maxton is director of AutoPolis, a firm that specializes in the structures and dynamics of the world automotive industry and helps clients position themselves for profitable growth. He is responsible for its activities in Asia and since 1992, has been closely affiliated with the Economist Newspaper Group and chairs all of The Economist's automotive industry conferences throughout the world. He writes for Business China, Business Asia, and various other Group publications, as well as for numerous newspapers throughout Europe and Asia. He is also a television, radio, and press commentator on the industry. Maxton and Wormald were co-authors of Driving Over a Cliff? Business Lessons from the World's Car Industry (Addison Wesley, 1994), which was nominated for the Financial Times Best Book about Business Award. JohnWormald is a director and co-founder of Autopolis. He has worked in and for the automotive industry for over 25 years. He advises vehicle manufacturers, component suppliers, distribution and service companies, and financial and government institutions, with a particular emphasis on the downstream distribution and service sectors of the industry. He regularly lectures about the industry, speaks at industry conferences, writes for automotive and general publications, and is quoted and interviewed in the media. He is a co-author of Driving Over a Cliff?

When human drivers let intelligent software take the wheel: the beginning of a new era in personal mobility. "Smart, wide-ranging, [and] nontechnical." -Los Angeles Times "Anyone who wants to understand what's coming must read this fascinating book." -Martin Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Robots In the year 2014, Google fired a shot heard all the way to Detroit. Google's newest driverless car had no steering wheel and no brakes. The message was clear: cars of the future will be born fully autonomous, with no human driver needed. In the coming decade, self-driving cars will hit the streets, rearranging established industries and reshaping cities, giving us new choices in where we live and how we work and play. In this book, Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman offer readers insight into the risks and benefits of driverless cars and a lucid and engaging explanation of the enabling technology. Recent advances in software and robotics are toppling long-standing technological barriers that for decades have confined self-driving cars to the realm of fantasy. A new kind of artificial intelligence software called deep learning gives cars rapid and accurate visual perception. Human drivers can relax and take their eyes off the road. When human drivers let intelligent software take the wheel, driverless cars will offer billions of people all over the world a safer, cleaner, and more convenient mode of transportation. Although the technology is nearly ready, car companies and policy makers may not be. The authors make a compelling case for why government, industry, and consumers need to work together to make the development of driverless cars our society's next "Apollo moment."

The New York Times bestselling author of Bitter Brew chronicles the birth and rise to greatness of the American auto industry through the remarkable life of Harley Earl, an eccentric six-foot-five, stuttering visionary who dropped out of college and went on to invent the profession of automobile styling, thereby revolutionized the way cars were made, marketed, and even imagined. Harleys Earl's story qualifies as a bona fide American family saga. It began in the Michigan pine forest in the years after the Civil War, traveled across the Great Plains on the wooden wheels of a covered wagon, and eventually settled in a dirt road village named Hollywood, California, where young Harley took the skills he learned working in his father's carriage shop and applied them to designing sleek, racy-looking automobile bodies for the fast crowd in the burgeoning silent movie business. As the 1920s roared with the sound of mass manufacturing, Harley returned to Michigan, where, at GM's invitation, he introduced art into the rigid mechanics of auto-making. Over the next thirty years, he functioned as a kind of combination Steve Jobs and Tom Ford of his time, redefining the form and function of the country's premier product. His impact was profound. When he retired as GM's VP of Styling in 1958, Detroit reigned as the manufacturing capitol of the world and General Motors ranked as the most successful company in the history of business. Knoedelseder tells the story in ways both large and small, weaving the history of the company with the history of Detroit and the Earl family as Fins examines the effect of the automobile on America's economy, culture, and national psyche.

Racing continues to provide the preeminent directive for advancing powertrain development for automakers worldwide. Formula 1, World Rally, and World Endurance Championship all provide engineering teams the most demanding and rigorous testing opportunities for the latest engine and technology designs. Turbocharging has seen significant growth in the passenger car market after years of development on racing circuits. Advances in Turbocharged Racing Engines combines ten essential SAE technical papers with introductory content from the editor on turbocharged engine use in F1, WRC, and WEC–recognizing how forced induction in racing has impacted production vehicle powertrains. Topics featured in this book include: Fundamental aspects of design and operation of turbocharged engines Electric turbocharger usage in F1 Turbocharged engine research by Toyota, SwRI and US EPA, Honda, and Caterpillar This book provides a historical and relevant insight into research and development of racing engines. The goal is to provide the latest advancements in turbocharged engines through examples and case studies that will appeal to engineers, executives, instructors, students, and enthusiasts alike.

Diagnostic Communication with Road-Vehicles and Non-Road Mobile Machinery examines the communication between a diagnostic tester and E/E systems of road-vehicles and non-road mobile machinery such as agricultural machines and construction equipment. The title also contains the description of E/E systems (control units and in-vehicle networks), the communication protocols (e.g. OBD, J1939 and UDS on CAN / IP), and a glimpse into the near future covering remote, cloud-based diagnostics and cybersecurity threats.

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.