Industry Focus: Automotive
The U.S. automotive industry has been written off before. But today, technology, consumer demands and outdated business models are driving significant shifts—to the point where tomorrow’s car manufacturers might not look anything like they do today.
As the automotive industry goes through this disruption—and attempts to withstand strong financial headwinds—suppliers have a larger role to play. And this is driving a closer relationship between manufacturers and suppliers—with material handling playing a key role.
Many of these changes have occurred in 2017 after gathering on the horizon for a few years. IndustryWeek anticipated that 2017 would force the automotive production line to “streamline, automate and diversify at even greater speed as manufacturers and suppliers race to produce lighter more powerful vehicles faster. The effects will spread throughout the supply chain. Suppliers, too, will need to be more innovative, faster and more agile—often transforming their logistics and production processes as smaller, more technologically advanced suppliers start challenging older ones. Speed of development, production and supply will be of the essence.”
Changes in the plants continue to reflect the automotive industry’s full embrace of sophisticated automation, something that Gene Buer, vice president, Solutions Group, at Columbus McKinnon, has watched for more than two decades. “There are so many more robots doing so much of the work. AGVs (automated guided vehicles) are also a major growth area inside the plants. The number of material handling equipment operators within plants has dropped significantly over the last 10 years as smart automation equipment has gotten much more capable.”
