Search Results
November 17, 2008
By: CartPro
Category: Automotive Industry, Business Tips, Future Trends, Material Handling, Safety and Ergonomics
The plight of the American automobile industry should serve as a cautionary tale for all U.S. manufacturers and businesses. To survive in today’s global marketplace, you must be flexible, embrace change, and constantly re-shape your business to meet future trends. Survival is as much about preparing your business for the future as it is about being competitive today.
Detroit’s problems are complex and have been exacerbated by a 15% sales drop as the economy has worsened, but at their core is the failure of U.S. auto executives to acknowledge the trend toward more fuel-efficient cars and to innovate. Rather than meeting the challenge posed by rising well-made, fuel-efficient Asian competition, Detroit continued business as usual, putting its efforts into advertising and Congressional lobbying to support bigger, better, fuel-guzzling cars. And until the rising cost of gas bit us in the wallet, the American public played along.
The sad thing is that back in 2000 Detroit did flirt with a program to push fuel-efficient vehicles but abandoned the effort as too expensive and unnecessary. It makes you wonder if the auto industry would be in cardiac arrest today if industry leaders had had the foresight to imagine the future and the courage to make the hard decisions necessary to prepare for it.
In the material handling industry, DJ Products faced this dilemma successfully. With the vision to spot new trends and the flexibility to act, DJ Products was one of the early responders to need for ergonomic material handling equipment. Well before the high price of repetitive stress injuries became a national cause, DJ Products saw a need to design material handling equipment that would reduce the potential for musculoskeletal injuries and improve the health and safety of workers.
DJ Products manufactures ergonomically-designed motorized carts and powered cart, equipment and vehicle movers that eliminate the pain and strain of manually pushing and pulling heavy carts and wheeled equipment. Our products are less costly, smaller, more maneuverable and more versatile than traditional material handling equipment used to move carts and equipment, such as forklift trucks, walkies and riding tugs. Forward-thinking business owners are revitalizing their operations and positioning themselves for the future by turning to ergonomic equipment to meet their material handling needs.
With an Obama administration expected to increase ergonomic standards and requirements in the next year, a proactive approach toward worker health and safety is a smart business move. And it’s a decision that will have a positive impact on your bottom line. The cost of most ergonomic equipment purchases are recouped in the first year in savings on medical costs, insurance, workers’ compensation and lost work days. A move to ergonomic equipment also provides a substantial benefit in improved worker morale and increased productivity.
To find out how ergonomically-designed material handling equipment can help prepare your business to meet the challenges of the future, contact the ergonomic experts at DJ Products.
No Comments →
November 14, 2008
By: CartPro
Category: Automotive Industry, Business Tips, Future Trends
Despite harsh criticism, the President and Congress seem poised to throw a lifeline to America’s struggling auto industry. Critics say Detroit’s problems stem from 30 years of short-sightedness and poor decision-making. Failure to recognize future trends toward smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles compounded by failure to aggressively address budget-busting labor demands head critics’ lists of the poor management practices that have led to the U.S. auto industry’s financial woes (see our Nov. 12 post). Today, the auto industry defends itself.
U.S. auto industry representatives dispute their critics, saying critics oversimplify the issues and don’t credit automakers for the significant progress made in recent years. “In the last five years, there’s been more restructuring done in the automotive business than any other business in the history of the United States,” said Tony Cervone, General Motors VP of communications.
Auto industry spokesmen cite a decade’s worth of tough cost cutting measures, improved productivity and their switch to the production of more competitive, fuel-efficient cars as indications that Detroit has been working hard to reverse course and increase its competitiveness with popular foreign imports. They point out that their ability to compete is severely hampered by the demands of powerful labor unions and the strictures of multiple government regulations.
The recessionary economy and tight credit have placed additional burdens on automakers. New car sales are down, in part, because consumers aren’t spending. Across the economic board, consumers are harboring their financial resources and taking a wait and see attitude about the nation’s economic future. Adding insult to injury, the tight credit market has made it nearly impossible for people who want to buy a new car to get financing. Burned by the mortgage meltdown, banks have reined in lending practices and raised loan requirements.
The news isn’t all doom and gloom, however. Capitalizing on fuel-efficient designs initiated in 2000, Detroit is finally rolling out cheaper, competitive alternatives to the Asian-designed vehicles that dominate that sector of the market. Financial pressure is forcing the industry to consolidate and streamline production practices. President-elect Obama’s reminder to the American people that we will all have to sacrifice if the country is to weather the current economic crisis could play out in more reasonable labor contracts. And that Congressional lifeline is likely to come with lots of strings attached that should give Detroit the needed incentive to redefine itself more competitively.
Next time: Lessons to be learned from the auto industry meltdown
No Comments →
November 12, 2008
By: CartPro
Category: Automotive Industry, Future Trends
President-elect Obama yesterday asked President Bush to throw a lifeline to the battered U.S. auto industry. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also called for “emergency and limited financial assistance” for auto makers and suppliers, introducing legislation to make the big three automakers eligible for help under the $700 billion Congressional bailout passed last month. The move followed disastrous third-quarter losses reported by Detroit’s Big Three: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
Prior to its election break, Congress passed legislation providing $25 billion in government-backed loans to automakers to help them retool for the production of more fuel-efficient vehicles. Since then, the Big Three and United Autoworkers officials have asked for an additional $25 billion to keep the automakers afloat and a further $25 billion to fund future healthcare payments to 780,000 retirees and their dependents. Legislation currently being written in the House and Senate is expected to severely limit executive compensation and demand vigorous federal review in exchange for bailout funds.
Critics say Detroit is suffering from decades of short-sightedness and poor decision-making. In iterating the missteps that have led automakers to the edge of bankruptcy, critics cite the auto industry’s failure to invest in new products, failure to aggressively pursue fuel-efficient cars, failure to meet the competitive challenge of Asian imports and failure to take on growing union demands.
“There’s been 30 years of denial,” said Noel Tichy, a University of Michigan business professor, author and auto industry consultant. “They did not make themselves competitive. They didn’t deal with the union issues, the cost structures long ago, everything that makes a successful company.”
Tichy says the auto industry’s problems started in 1980s when Toyota and Honda mastered the production of reliable, fuel-efficient cars. Detroit, unfortunately, failed to see this as an omen of future trends. Cheap gas and a strong U.S. economy made Detroit blasé about the public’s fledgling interest in ecology and “green” lifestyles. Driven by high profits and consumer demand, the Big Three automakers continued to invest in the traditional “bigger is better” model, flooding the American market with luxury vans, trucks, SUVs and the ultimate example of overindulgence, the Hummer.
By the 1990s, Detroit had effectively ceded the small and midsize car markets to Toyota and Honda. When fears of global warming, pollution and high oil prices began to gain affect public opinion and buying habits after the millennium, U.S. automakers were caught unprepared. Skyrocketing fuel prices over the past year sent sales plummeting and sealed their fate. Coupled with a recessive economy and tight credit, failure to address future trends has driven the U.S. auto industry to the brink of extinction.
Next time: Hope for the future: Changes that will redefine the U.S. auto industry
No Comments →
Welcome to DJ products, Inc. blog. 
