Auto Industry
Is Chrysler the Cubs of Cars?
Last Sunday 60 Minutes did a story on Chrysler’s great comeback since Sergio Marchionne of Fiat took the reins of the company in 2009. When Marchionne came on, Chrysler used [...]
Making Parts in Hoosier Land
In mid-December I trekked 3 hours from Chicago to Northeast Indiana for a tour of manufacturing companies put on by the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership and Indiana Michigan Power. [...]
Manufacturing in Thailand – the “Detroit of the East”
Emily Halgrimson, Today’s Machining World’s Managing Editor, was invited to join 11 other journalists from the U.S. and Canada (six in the automotive sector and six in the food industry sector) by [...]
Making a Beautiful Life
The wonderful definitive biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson spends many pages on the close collaboration between Jobs and his Chief Designer, Jony Ive. Ive was the brains behind [...]
Industry Scuttlebutt
I was in Northeast Indiana last week for a press junket promoting the manufacturing sector of the region. The first company we visited was the General Motors plant in Roanoke, [...]
Is Elon Musk the Next Steve Jobs?
Is Elon Musk, the head of Tesla Motors, the Steve Jobs of cars? Is his all-electric line of autos going to revolutionize the industry? Can one man with a vision [...]
Machining Industry Scuttlebutt
By Lloyd Graff Tesla Motors went public this week. The company’s all electric roadster has not been a resounding success financially or mechanically, but has been a publicity magnet. Elon [...]
Is Overtime “Lean Manufacturing”?
By Lloyd Graff Is paying overtime rather than bringing in new employees lean manufacturing practice? For adherents to lean concepts, the question of how to handle a “bullwhip” effect where [...]
Is Lean Manufacturing to Blame for Toyota’s Woes?
By Lloyd Graff Toyota, the icon of lean manufacturing, now has a big fat problem that could devalue the brands which vaulted it to the top selling car company in [...]
The Next Automotive Boom
The default position for many in the machining world has been to flee the automotive business like it was an ominous cloud of swine flu. I admit to lapsing into [...]