New automobile plants blaze trail in new technology and best practice - Management briefing

With technological change being forced upon the auto manufacturing industry plants are being retooled faster than in living memory. At such a time, companies are always looking for new ideas and technology. The best place to assess new practices and machinery is always going to be a recently built or upgraded plant, because it is here that managers have tested them out on making vehicles. So, just-auto told three reporters on three continents to pick a plant that was well-known for innovation and to examine how they went about their business: one in north America, one in Europe, and another in Japan. This briefing aims to catch a glimpse of the future for auto manufacturing, and how these plants could be showing the way forward in a sector about to embark on wholesale change.