Harbour-Felax Group, Jim Harbour Release Findings of Landmark Automotive Study

What: Press conference to announce results of a new landmark study, Automotive Competitive Challenges: Going Beyond Lean study, documenting the major structural gaps that exist among North American automotive manufacturers. The study analyzes the difference that exists today in profit per vehicle, provides insight into the competitive disparity between OEMs, highlights the impact on suppliers, and evaluates potential solutions for operational challenges.

Specifically, the study documents gaps in performance in the following areas:

  *  Profitability
  *  Revenue per vehicle
  *  Labor issues
  *  Capacity
  *  Product engineering
  *  Process and design engineering
  *  Investment, research and development spending
  *  Effect of the yen exchange rate

  Who:  Study will be presented by:
  *  Laurie Harbour-Felax, president, Harbour-Felax Group
  *  Jim Harbour, study author; founder, Harbour Consulting

  Both will be available for interviews following the press conference.

  When:  Monday, October 2, 2006
         Registration and breakfast at 7:30 a.m.
         Press conference at 8:00 a.m.

  Where:  Michigan State University Management Education Center
          811 W. Square Lake Rd.
          Troy, MI 48098
          (Located on W. Square Lake Rd.
          between Crooks Rd. and Livernois Rd.)

About the Harbour-Felax Group

The Harbour-Felax Group partners with companies and their suppliers to transform their operations and develop a roadmap for maintaining sustainability in today's automotive and manufacturing community. A team of highly skilled and experienced consultants, the Harbour-Felax Group and their partners have real-world experience in all aspects of the automotive and manufacturing community. The Harbour-Felax Group analyzes a company's operations compared to its competitors, identifies existing gaps, develops a road map to correct those gaps and implements a sustainable transformation process to achieve success. On the Web, http://www.harbourfelax.com/ .

PRNewswire -- Sept. 29
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