Technological & Economic Trends in Automotive Related Product Development and Manufacturing

The study “Technological & Economic Trends in Automotive Related Product Development & Manufacturing” was conducted in 1995-1996. It was supported by University of Michigan-Flint, Research Excellence Fund of State of Michigan and Genesee Area Focus Council. The objective of the research was to discover and examine core technologies likely to emerge as major industrial and business subsectors of the auto industry within the next ten years and to render judgment as to their infrastructure requirements.

Infrastructure includes, but is not limited to, such considerations as public policy, physical infrastructure, research, degree and training programs and suppliership.

In order to accomplish the research objective the research team examined three key areas:

• Analyze emerging technologies
• Analyze related university research
• Research work force issues related to education and training, new technology implementation and human resource needs of automotive manufacturers

This paper will describe the major outcomes from this comprehensive research and will show its applications in the area of product and process development as well as manufacturing.