supply chain

Economies of scale, globalization and production efficiencies continue to exacerbate any disruptive incident in an automaker's supply chain. The latest snafu is due to a fatal explosion at Germany's Evonik Industries, which arrested that company's ability to produce cyclodecatriene (CDT). In ...

New car sales have endured all manner of impediments since The Great Recession began in 2008, and for various reasons including everything from restricted lending by banks to strikes and Acts of God. Next up among the bugbears could be a shortage of car haulers, which were pulled from active duty ...

We're hearing less and less about the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the resulting supply chain disruptions, but that doesn't mean the issues have gone away. Inside Line reports that the brand new Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet is the latest vehicle hurt by the natural disaster. The ...

Honda is continuing to adjust its production schedules in the wake of the March 11 earthquake in Japan, and the shuffling will reportedly continue at U.S. plants as well. The plan is to run full production shifts at U.S. facilities on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from May 9 through July 1, with a ...

Although the automotive industry has been bracing for a Chrysler bankruptcy for some time, last week's official announcement of a Chapter 11 filing still came as a shock. One of the long-held assertions about bankruptcy was that once one domestic automaker filed, the others would eventually be ...

Fearing that a couple dozen of its U.S. suppliers could shut down production, Toyota has established a "war room" to monitor suppliers and has begun to warehouse assembly components. While the move marks a departure from the automaker's "just in time" production philosophy, a mantra that associates ...

One of the key improvements in automotive manufacturing efficiency over the past three decades may soon fall victim to America's current economic turmoil. Toyota made "just-in-time manufacturing" a common term and it has since been adopted by the entire industry. Unfortunately, in order for ...