The U.S. Automobile Manufacturing Industry
Title | The U.S. Automobile Manufacturing Industry PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 108 |
Release | 1996 |
Genre | Automobile industry and trade |
ISBN |
U.S. Automotive Industry
Title | U.S. Automotive Industry PDF eBook |
Author | Stephen Cooney |
Publisher | Nova Publishers |
Total Pages | 192 |
Release | 2007 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 9781600211300 |
Over one million Americans are employed in manufacturing motor vehicles, equipment and parts. But the industry has changed dramatically since the U.S. "Big Three" motor vehicle corporations (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) produced the overwhelming majority of cars and light trucks sold in the United States, and directly employed many people themselves. By 2003, most passenger cars sold in the U.S. market were either imported or manufactured by foreign-based producers at new North American plants (so-called "transplant" facilities). The Big Three now dominate only in light trucks, and are also now being challenged there by the foreign brands. The Big Three have shed about 600,000 U.S. jobs since 1980, while about one-quarter of Americans employed in automotive manufacturing (nearly 300,000) work for the foreign-owned companies. It is clear that the U.S. automotive industry has undergone many drastic changes that have had a net adverse effect on American interests. This book examines the causes of these changes. Congressional acts, increasingly stringent emission laws, the effects of NAFTA, labour unions and globalisation are all within the scope of this book.
Wrecked
Title | Wrecked PDF eBook |
Author | Joshua Murray |
Publisher | Russell Sage Foundation |
Total Pages | 273 |
Release | 2019-06-13 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 0871548208 |
At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, automobile manufacturing was the largest, most profitable industry in the United States and residents of industry hubs like Detroit and Flint, Michigan had some of the highest incomes in the country. Over the last half-century, the industry has declined, and American automakers now struggle to stay profitable. How did the most prosperous industry in the richest country in the world crash and burn? In Wrecked, sociologists Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz offer an unprecedented historical-sociological analysis of the downfall of the auto industry. Through an in-depth examination of labor relations and the production processes of automakers in the U.S. and Japan both before and after World War II, they demonstrate that the decline of the American manufacturers was the unintended consequence of their attempts to weaken the bargaining power of their unions. Today Japanese and many European automakers produce higher quality cars at lower cost than their American counterparts thanks to a flexible form of production characterized by long-term sole suppliers, assembly and supply plants located near each other, and just-in-time delivery of raw materials. While this style of production was, in fact, pioneered in the U.S. prior to World War II, in the years after the war, American automakers deliberately dismantled this system. As Murray and Schwartz show, flexible production accelerated innovation but also facilitated workers’ efforts to unionize plants and carry out work stoppages. To reduce the efficacy of strikes and combat the labor militancy that flourished between the Depression and the postwar period, the industry dispersed production across the nation, began maintaining large stockpiles of inventory, and eliminated single sourcing. While this restructuring of production did ultimately reduce workers’ leverage, it also decreased production efficiency and innovation. The U.S. auto industry has struggled ever since to compete with foreign automakers, and formerly thriving motor cities have suffered the consequences of mass deindustrialization. Murray and Schwartz argue that new business models that reinstate flexible production and prioritize innovation rather than cheap labor could stem the outsourcing of jobs and help revive the auto industry. By clarifying the historical relationships between production processes, organized labor, and industrial innovation, Wrecked provides new insights into the inner workings and decline of the U.S. auto industry.
Arsenal of Democracy
Title | Arsenal of Democracy PDF eBook |
Author | Charles K. Hyde |
Publisher | Wayne State University Press |
Total Pages | 264 |
Release | 2013-10-04 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0814339522 |
Automotive historians, World War II scholars, and American history buffs will welcome the compelling look at wartime industry in Arsenal of Democracy.
Comeback
Title | Comeback PDF eBook |
Author | Paul Ingrassia |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Total Pages | 536 |
Release | 2013-05-14 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1476737479 |
In Comeback, Pulitzer Prize-winners Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B. White take us to the boardrooms, the executive offices, and the shop floors of the auto business to reconstruct, in riveting detail, how America's premier industry stumbled, fell, and picked itself up again. The story begins in 1982, when Honda started building cars in Marysville, Ohio, and the entire U.S. car industry seemed to be on the brink of extinction. It ends just over a decade later, with a remarkable turn of the tables, as Japan's car industry falters and America's Big Three emerge as formidable global competitors. Comeback is a story propelled by larger-than-life characters -- Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, Don Petersen, Roger Smith, among many others -- and their greed, pride, and sheer refusal to face facts. But it is also a story full of dedicated, unlikely heroes who struggled to make the Big Three change before it was too late.
Wrecked
Title | Wrecked PDF eBook |
Author | Joshua Murray |
Publisher | Russell Sage Foundation |
Total Pages | 273 |
Release | 2019-06-13 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1610448871 |
At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, automobile manufacturing was the largest, most profitable industry in the United States and residents of industry hubs like Detroit and Flint, Michigan had some of the highest incomes in the country. Over the last half-century, the industry has declined, and American automakers now struggle to stay profitable. How did the most prosperous industry in the richest country in the world crash and burn? In Wrecked, sociologists Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz offer an unprecedented historical-sociological analysis of the downfall of the auto industry. Through an in-depth examination of labor relations and the production processes of automakers in the U.S. and Japan both before and after World War II, they demonstrate that the decline of the American manufacturers was the unintended consequence of their attempts to weaken the bargaining power of their unions. Today Japanese and many European automakers produce higher quality cars at lower cost than their American counterparts thanks to a flexible form of production characterized by long-term sole suppliers, assembly and supply plants located near each other, and just-in-time delivery of raw materials. While this style of production was, in fact, pioneered in the U.S. prior to World War II, in the years after the war, American automakers deliberately dismantled this system. As Murray and Schwartz show, flexible production accelerated innovation but also facilitated workers’ efforts to unionize plants and carry out work stoppages. To reduce the efficacy of strikes and combat the labor militancy that flourished between the Depression and the postwar period, the industry dispersed production across the nation, began maintaining large stockpiles of inventory, and eliminated single sourcing. While this restructuring of production did ultimately reduce workers’ leverage, it also decreased production efficiency and innovation. The U.S. auto industry has struggled ever since to compete with foreign automakers, and formerly thriving motor cities have suffered the consequences of mass deindustrialization. Murray and Schwartz argue that new business models that reinstate flexible production and prioritize innovation rather than cheap labor could stem the outsourcing of jobs and help revive the auto industry. By clarifying the historical relationships between production processes, organized labor, and industrial innovation, Wrecked provides new insights into the inner workings and decline of the U.S. auto industry.
The American Automobile Industry
Title | The American Automobile Industry PDF eBook |
Author | John Bell Rae |
Publisher | Boston, Mass. : Twayne Publishers |
Total Pages | 232 |
Release | 1984 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN |