Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
I don’t buy what that guy is selling. It may have been true 15 or 20 years ago, but US auto makers are innovation leaders these days. Hell, you can wave your foot under the bumper of a new Ford and the tailgate will fly open!
Seriously, Tesla and GM’s electric cars were ahead of their time by a decade.
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I'm not buying the article either. Just about every OE pass car manufacture is just in time - The model is based on the Toyota Productin System. Toyota has classes and workshops to learn and engage in their system. It is open to anyone. Every auto company may call it something else, but is is the Toyoto system.
There are allot of things changing in the US auto market: buying habits, driving habits, Americans are keeping cars longer (11.7 years), cost, personal debt. ride sharing - on and on.
The auto aftermarket is off and will be for the next few years - Major car repairs occur whren the vehicle is 10 years old. Ten years ago, we were in a recession - car sales dropped.
Technology has not taken a back seat. There are more options and electronics than ever. There are new high strength steels, aluminum, plastic and other material used to reduce weight, cost and increase fuel efficiency.
It is a tuff business - OE suppliers typically have a 3-5 years contract usually coupled with a 3%-5% per year price reduction over the length of the contract. This is hard to do with annual wage/benifit/material/inflation costs. To meet those challenges, you automate, move processes to low cost countries/states and continuously improve processes. You can't sit or you will go out of business.