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In this October 2010 Newsletter #2:
Issues With Suppliers Highlighted In
Toyota Safety Audit
GE To Invest Over $430 Million, Create 500 New Jobs
In Four US Centers
Manufacturers Discuss Product Counterfeiting, Piracy
With Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
Discuss Die Casting Design
Issues With Suppliers Highlighted In Toyota Safety Audit
Bloomberg News (10/13, Kitamura et al.) reports some
suppliers of Toyota Motor Corp. "believed to be testing products four times a year were
only doing so once a year, Dino Triantafyllos, vice president of North American product
quality, said." The company "set out to audit suppliers in North America following its
biggest recall crisis." Triantafyllos noted that the audit "found areas where maybe there
was a misunderstanding about some aspects of the process. ... These improvements we're
making, if we'd made them two years ago, maybe some of these issues wouldn't have happened."
Hiroshi Osada, the head of "a panel formed by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers
to help Toyota evaluate its efforts to boost quality," said, "This crisis was a problem that
came from the design-development stage," noting that "closer examination of components 'should be
able to help prevent quality defects.'"
GE To Invest Over $430 Million, Create 500 New Jobs In Four US Centers
The
AP (10/19) reported General Electric Co. is planning to invest "$432
million to establish four US-based refrigeration design and manufacturing centers that will be the focus for
its new energy efficient line of refrigerators and other appliances." The company announced Monday "the move
will create 500 new jobs by 2014 and help preserve another 1,166 existing positions." According to GE, the
investment "is an effort to revitalize its appliance business and take advantage of increasing global
competitiveness of US factories. ... GE said this will drive down costs by making the manufacturing process
more efficient and improve product quality."
Bloomberg News (10/18, Layne) reported, "Factories and design centers in Bloomington, Indiana;
Louisville, Kentucky; Decatur, Alabama; and Selmer, Tennessee, will open during the next four
years, Fairfield, Connecticut- based GE said. Designs will incorporate Energy Star standards in
effect in 2014 and target the US. ...Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said in September that
he planned to bring appliance jobs back from China and Mexico, because US workers were making
higher-quality products for less. Employees and unions agreed to cut expenses including reducing
starting wages for production employees." Campbell said GE "decided to invest at a time when the
industry is suffering so that GE will be ready when business picks up with new products."
Commenting on the move, the
Wall Street Journal (10/19, Sechler, subscription required) reports,
GE CEO James Campbell said, "This is a big commitment on the part of GE to really transform the
business and put us in a much different place over the next couple of years. ... Our US plant can
and will be competitive in the production of these products." The company noted a total of about
$78 million of local government, state, and federal incentives.
Manufacturers Discuss Product Counterfeiting, Piracy With Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
TMCNet (10/13, Silverstein) reported, "Representatives from the
National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) met in person with US Intellectual Property Enforcement
Coordinator Victoria Espinel in Illinois to discuss the growing problem of intellectual property
theft." The Manufacturers said that the industry "continues to face a growing threat of product
counterfeiting and piracy around the world, especially in China. Intellectual property theft overseas
continues to harm US exports and negatively impact manufacturers' ability to create jobs, according
to the NAM."
Discuss Die Casting Design
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like to discuss the topics in this newsletter further? Feel free to visit the NADCA
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www.diecasting.org/forum/ and register to start discussing
your die casting design topic!
