The future of motor vehicle manufacturing

Ford is betting billions of dollars, its reputation, and its financial future that truck buyers are ready for an aluminum pickup. Natural gas, propane, and electricity are increasingly the fuels of choice for commercial fleet manangers. Skilled tradesmen are carrying tablets and smartphones onto shop floors, giving them access to more product specs and machine diagrams than they could ever need. And we haven’t even begun to discuss those amazing machines – tools that can talk to each other, optimize assembly performance, and share vital information with maintenance crews.

Every aspect of motor vehicle design, production, and engineering is being reinvented. Anyone who looks at transportation manufacturing as a mature industry simply isn’t paying attention. For those of us who know how dynamic and exciting these markets are, welcome to the launch of Today’s Motor Vehicles.

On these pages, we will share details of industries in flux. New materials, new work processes, new tools, and new powertrains are flooding the consumer and commercial worlds. Opportunities abound, as do potential pitfalls.

If your company is striving to improve efficiency and cut costs, welcome to the club. Your suppliers, customers, and competitors are facing the same pressures. In every issue, we will share stories about companies overcoming the challenges of modern production – and the tools and innovations powering those successes.

With so many new ways of improving fuel economy, cutting weight, boosting power, and building vehicles, manufacturers need timely information on trends and developments. Between this magazine, our monthly eNewsletters and our www.TodaysMotorVehicles.com website, our team will provide the resources to explore those innovative options.

This premier issue offers a good indication on the types of stories you can expect to see with every installment of TMV: coverage of advanced manufacturing, new materials, automotive news, commercial vehicle trends, toolmaking, design, and quality.

On a personal note, this new magazine is giving me the opportunity to write about topics that I’ve loved for years. Since 2000, I’ve written about automotive production and heavy machinery for newspapers in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Ohio. Most recently, I spent six years writing about Ford, Eaton, Parker Hannifin, General Motors, Honda, and many others for Cleveland’s newspaper, The Plain Dealer. And, as a former engineering student, plant tours have always been the best part of my job.

I want to hear from you. Call or write any time – rschoenberger@gie.net | 330.523.5381 – with your concerns over regulations, new approaches you’ve found to solve age-old problems, trends you’ve spotted in your businesses, or just to talk about Cummins’ new diesel lineup, hydrogen fuel-cell powered forklifts, or Corvettes falling into sinkholes in Kentucky. I hope you enjoy our first issue, and I’m looking forward to starting a conversation about how you will be designing, engineering, and building motor vehicles in the future.