Automakers cut about 41,700 more vehicles from their production plans last week because of microchip shortages, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions. Most of those losses were at assembly plants in Europe and China. Europe axed about 16,400 vehicles from production schedules last week, while about 15,500 were removed in China. About 8,000
Suppliers, already juggling higher costs and choppy vehicle assembly schedules, want more insight into automakers’ long-term electrification plans so they can create efficient strategies of their own, according to Plante Moran’s survey of automaker-supplier relationships. “During COVID, a war room approach was adopted to quickly resolve critical issues,” said Dave Andrea, principal in Plante Moran’s
Automakers removed 27,240 vehicles from their global production schedules last week because of the unrelenting shortage of microchips, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions. Each region of the world made new factory cuts last week, with plants in Asia outside of China leading the way by trimming 11,672 vehicles. Meanwhile, companies axed 8,510
A new manufacturing process developed by supplier giant Magna International Inc. and the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory could soon make it possible to reduce aluminum parts suppliers’ reliance on new aluminum. The process — Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion — allows a company to collect scrap and leftover aluminum trimmings and directly
German powertrain supplier Vitesco Technologies, looking to become a greener company, is turning to green lasers to help it do just that. Vitesco has adopted new laser technology developed by German laser producer Trumpf to help mass-produce battery management electronics for BMW Group, among other potential uses. The green lasers stand in contrast to the
A car accident involving a Robert Bosch engineer sparked an idea that could cut down on the severity of similar crashes. In 2019, Rameez Ahmad, an engineering manager at Bosch USA, was traveling in Pakistan with friends from college when a motorcycle hit the passenger side of their vehicle. No one was hurt, but the
Last week 40,055 vehicles were axed from production plans because of the microchip shortage worldwide as automakers continue grappling with supply chain woes, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions. Most of last week’s cuts were at European assembly plants, where about 29,300 vehicles were removed from factory schedules. There were also losses at
Automakers cut 48,421 cars from their global production schedules because of microchip shortages last week, according to an estimate by AutoForecast Solutions. Europe led in factory schedule changes, with about 18,200 vehicles axed. North America lost about 17,000 vehicles, while China cut about 11,700. Although automakers continue to point to the chip shortage as a
Continental North America is letting its employees take the lead as the supplier looks to become more diverse and inclusive. At the heart of Continental’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy are a variety of employee resource groups, each led and organized by employees, said Mary Arraf, the head of DE&I for Continental North America’s automotive
As automakers scramble to create showrooms of new electric and software-driven vehicles, suppliers find themselves racing to develop the parts and systems to make them possible. Those shorter development cycles could lead to a rise in costly recalls if automakers and their suppliers aren’t careful, said Dan Rustmann, co-chair of Detroit law firm Butzel Long’s
