All OEMs articles – Page 37
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FeatureMaintaining the flow
What are OEMs, claims managers and repair specialists doing to prevent damaged vehicles from damaging profits and customer confidence?Despite the best efforts of carmakers and their logistics providers, and despite vehicles arriving in perfect condition most of the time – up to 99.75% for some OEMs – there will always ...
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FeatureOn board for progress
Ashok Leyland’s head of vehicle distribution, Chandrakant Mishra reveals how the OEM is trying to maximise its outbound logistics efficiency as much as the Indian landscape will allow.Unpaved and congested roads; long queues of vehicles waiting at state borders to pay various tolls and taxes; limited handling and storage at ...
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FeaturePlanning from first to last mile
Logistics specialists are looking for transport management systems to do more than optimise routes and track flows; they want complete management tools for increasingly complex supply chains.At Torrance, California-headquartered Toyota Logistics Services – the outbound logistics and vehicle processing arm of Toyota Motor Sales USA – a recently-implemented Oracle transport ...
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FeatureTPT slaps 9% tariff increase on South African carmakers
South African terminal operator, Transnet Port Terminals (TPT), has announced it will increase tariffs for automotive cargo by almost double the average approved by the country’s port regulator, which stands at 4.8%. The latest increase follows a similar increase of 9.25% last year.The tariffs, which will come into affect at ...
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FeatureVW reported making short sea shipments between Portugal and Germany
VW is reported to have started parts shipments using a direct short sea route between its Autoeuropa production plant in Palmela, Portugal to its plant in Emden, Germany.VW has not confirmed the reports but several sources in the Portuguese press state that the first trailer of parts was moved last ...
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FeatureLast mile: Real life on the super highway
A contributor’s first-hand experience of buying a car online was far from technologically seamless, but the savings spoke for themselvesWhile researching and writing the feature on e-commerce in automotive, fate conspired to give me first-hand experience of such a transaction. I liked the look of Ford’s Kuga model (marketed as ...
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FeatureApps and logistics: Taking it all in hand
Smartphone apps are increasingly being used in areas such as track-and-trace, damage reporting and claims, as well as compliance issuesWith the growth of e-commerce, customers are increasingly accustomed to using their smartphones not only to buy products, but also track delivery right to their door. The ubiquitous rise of Uber, ...
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FeatureE-commerce: Online and on the road
E-commerce in automotive is starting to penetrate spare parts and vehicle purchases, with implications for OEMs, dealers, LSPs and customersIn the early days of eBay and Amazon, consumers marvelled at their own boldness. Buying on the internet was a step into the unknown: sending money to strangers to purchase items ...
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FeatureFCA phases out Chrysler supply to the UK
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has confirmed it is ending sales of Chrysler vehicles in the UK, which includes the Chrysler 300 and Grand Voyager. It will also end sales of the Ypsilon luxury supermini in 2017. Sales of the Delta hatchback ended last year. Sales of Chrysler brand vehicles dropped ...
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FeatureGM pulls assembly out of troubled Russian market; VW cuts back in Kaluga
General Motors has announced that it is stopping volume production of midrange vehicles at its plant in St Petersburg by the middle of this year and will concentrate on importing premium Cadillac and Chevrolet products to Russia, such as the Corvette, Camaro and Tahoe. It will end sales of Opel ...
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FeatureBMW to use 40-ton electric truck for inbound deliveries to Munich plant
BMW has announced it will be the first carmaker to use a 40-ton truck powered purely by electric to deliver inbound parts. The carmaker has established a partnership with German logistics provider Scherm Group on a pilot project that will see the electric truck deliver material to the BMW Munich ...
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FeatureToyota part 2: A complex stock-in-trade
Toyota’s warehouse network and operations are strategic to maintaining the costs and efficiency of its spare parts deliveries, especially considering the scale, volume and diversity of parts and order lines that they handleThe volume moving in and out of Toyota’s huge main parts centres each day is simply dizzying: the ...
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FeaturePushing Europe's boundaries
Many barriers prevent a truly international, borderless vehicle logistics service across European countries. However, carmakers and logistics providers are making progress toward integrated networks.Political, economic and diplomatic tensions are rising in Europe, with the escalating issues surrounding Russia and Ukraine, and looming threats of Greece crashing out of the euro-zone, ...
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FeatureKorean carmakers cut exports to Russia amid falling sales
The export of cars from South Korea to Russia dropped by 71.5% year-on-year at the beginning of 2015 according to a report from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA). The sudden decline, because of poor sales in the Russian market for some of those carmakers, has forced companies to announce ...
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FeatureGardner replaces Grady in lead role at FCA’s dealer network
Peter Grady (left) will retire from his role as vice president, Dealer Network Development at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) – North America at the end of this month.Grady began his career with American Motors (AMC) in 1984, three years before AMC was bought outright by Chrysler. He went on to ...
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FeatureToyota part 1: NAPO organisation and 'One Toyota'
Understanding how Toyota's service parts division in the US is organised, and looking to the implication of the carmaker's consolidation in TexasAs vice-president and general manager of Toyota’s North American Parts Operations, Neil Swartz (left) manages the full scope of the service parts and accessories supply chain across Toyota Motor ...
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FeatureToyota part 1: Cornerstone of a strong supply chain
Toyota’s unique ‘two-tier’ supply chain in North America is designed to smooth distribution and ensure fast, uninterrupted supply to dealers, distributors and export marketsThe view outside the Toyota parts centre in Ontario, 50 miles east of Los Angeles, is pure California. Palm trees line the road in either direction and ...
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FeatureAmerican vistas of the Toyota way: A report in five parts
As Toyota’s largest global market, maintaining a fast, reliable supply of service parts and accessories across North America is critical to the carmaker’s business model. Spare parts sales add incremental profit to dealers and to Toyota alike, while their availability is essential to the company’s brand promise, from supporting vehicle ...
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FeatureRussia: Running on empty?
Rising prices and weak spending power, combined with a devalued currency, the low cost of oil and government cuts, add up to bleak forecasts for the Russian automotive sectorThe Russian automotive logistics industry is no stranger to calamity. Veteran executives will remember Russia’s instability in 1998 during its first financial ...
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FeatureNissan starts work on logistics park in Smyrna
As part of newly announced plans to expand its production footprint in Smyrna, Tennessee, Nissan North America is building a 140,000 sq.m integrated logistics centre that will handle inbound production parts.The carmaker is investing $160m in the total expansion at Smyrna, which includes a supplier park designed to encourage and ...