FUTURE TRENDS OF AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURING

THE PRESENT-DAY OEMS HAVE TO OVERCOME MANY UNFORESEEN TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES ARISING IN THE NEW MARKET OF THE FUTURE.

- PRABHAT KHARE

POST THE PATENT OF IC ENGINE DRIVEN tricycle by Carl Benz in 1896, in Germany, when the automotive industry was struggling to evolve across the globe, Henry Ford in 1910 brought revolutionary concepts of “moving conveyors” and “interchangeability of parts” changed the centuries-old world of the craft manufacturing system into the age of “Mass Production”.

However, another path-breaking transition in manufacturing was brought in by Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno of Toyota Motor Company brought in 1950, with the concept of “Lean Manufacturing” (also known as JIT Manufacturing or Toyota Way of manufacturing).

This philosophy was dramatically opposite to the Mass Production system of manufacturing. It was such a path-breaking idea that even after 70 years in practice, it is still contemporary and has become synonymous with 20th-century industrialisation. It has found its application in a wide range of processes from IT to logistics to education.

Over time, the automotive industry became a major industrial and economic force in several countries. Automobiles are probably one of those mass-manufactured products till date (and will continue to be so) around which, functioning of a large number of other industries (both upstream and downstream) such as steel, aluminum rubber, glass, copper, paint, chemical and plastic, fuel, recycling to name a few thrive. No wonder, the automobile industry is globally known as the “industry of industries”.