Industry X acknowledges that the pace of change has become so rapid that it no longer makes sense to think of manufacturing and production as advancing in discrete stages. The digital technologies that gave rise to the concept of “Industry 4.0” have continued to improve. No organization can reasonably aspire to adopt a state-of-the-art digital enterprise architecture because “state-of-the-art” is sure to advance by some degree by the time a new enterprise architecture is deployed.

This project presents an ecosystem approach to Industry X research. Industry X is a massive, complex, and rapidly evolving sector. The CAR research team thinks it is unlikely that any entity or individual can fully comprehend the depth and breadth of Industry X. To use a well-worn phrase, it takes a village to implement—and research—Industry X. The CAR Industry X ecosystem team consists of Hardware (Dell and Intel), Data Management (Cloudera), Digital Automation and Analytics (Rockwell Automation and PTC), Consulting (Accenture), and Cloud Infrastructure (Microsoft Azure). These companies provided financial support—but equally important, they provided the CAR research team with unmatched technical and strategic knowledge and perspective. Throughout the project, the CAR researcher’s interaction with the industry and the consortium members proved that no one participant has all the answers. A collaborative ecosystem would be a beneficial environment for all of these stakeholders.

The post The State of Industry X in Automotive appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.

The CALM group selected the vehicle roof structure for a co-development lightweighting study because it provides an opportunity for mixed-material application. The baseline vehicle for this research is the 2011 Honda Accord which has a mild steel roof structure. The design space contains twelve parts including the roof panel, roof bows, roof rails, and the headers.

Lightweighting ideas submitted by various CALM members were tested on various qualitative and quantitative parameters such as manufacturing readiness, joining feasibility, reparability, ability of computer simulation, etc. The project team selected four concepts after filtering through various combinations of the lightweighting ideas. All four concepts were studied by computer aided engineering methods including finite element analysis and design of experiments. The performance of the lightweight concepts were compared to the baseline.

The post Roof Lightweighting Study appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.

This study, performed under the auspices of LIFT (https://lift.technology) and the U.S. Office of Naval Research ( https://www.onr.navy.mil), looks at how various materials can be effectively joined as well as at various processes to perform the joining.

The post Evaluating Innovative Dissimilar Material Joining Technologies appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.

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The post Automotive Dashboard appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.

With funding from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) has prepared this technology roadmap based on internal research and a thorough analysis of available industry reports. CAR researchers vetted the study conclusions with critical input from a group of subject matter experts. This white paper updates CAR’s previous Technology Roadmap (Smith, Spulber, Modi, & Fiorelli, 2017) published in 2017.

The post Technology Roadmap: Materials and Manufacturing appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.

With funding from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) has prepared this technology roadmap based on internal research and a thorough analysis of available industry reports. CAR researchers vetted the study conclusions with critical input from a group of subject matter experts. This white paper updates CAR’s previous Technology Roadmap (Smith, Spulber, Modi, & Fiorelli, 2017) published in 2017.

The post Technology Roadmap: Intelligent Mobility Technologies appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.

The post NAFTA Briefing: Review of current NAFTA proposals and potential impacts on the North American automotive industry appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.

• Intelligent Mobility Technology
• Materials and Manufacturing Processes
• Light Duty Vehicle Propulsion

The post Technology Roadmaps: Intelligent Mobility Technology; Materials and Manufacturing Processes; and Light Duty Vehicle Propulsion appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.

President Trump has signaled his intention to withdraw from NAFTA or to renegotiate major provisions of the agreement. NAFTA has contributed to the growth of integrated automotive production and supply networks within the North American region, and significant changes to the tariff structure will have major ramifications for automotive manufacturers and suppliers. These ramifications range from the vehicle makers’ ability to deliver an affordable mix of vehicles consumers demand, to the ability to support supply chain requirements with globally cost-competitive raw materials as well as products that might not have any sources within the United States.

While there are always opportunities to improve the effectiveness —a wholesale withdrawal from NAFTA could set in motion a series of unintended consequences that would constrain future growth of the U.S. automotive industry. This briefing outlines the benefits of NAFTA to the automotive industry, consumers, and the economy as a whole, as well as the potential consequences if the U.S. were to unilaterally withdraw from NAFTA.

The post NAFTA Briefing: Trade benefits to the automotive industry and potential consequences of withdrawal from the agreement appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.

Combined with lower labor costs, Mexico’s unique free trade position with 40 countries and access to 47 percent of the world’s automotive market provides a significant competitive edge to attract automotive investment that the United States and Canada do not have. Growth in Mexican production volumes, however, can still result in new business for U.S. and Canadian suppliers. Due to well-integrated North American supply chains, vehicles produced in Mexico may be comprised of up to 40 percent U.S. content. In fact, U.S. exports of parts and components to Mexico more than doubled between 2005 and 2014 to a level of $18.4 billion.

The post The Growing Role of Mexico in the North American Automotive Industry – Trends, Drivers and Forecasts appeared first on Center for Automotive Research.