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Trends and Issues in the Auto Industry to be Addressed At Seminar

14 July 1998

Trends and Issues in the Automotive Industry will be Addressed At the Annual U-M Management Briefing Seminars Aug. 3-7

    ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 14 -- Auto executives Jack Smith of
General Motors, Wayne Booker of Ford, Tom Stallkamp of Chrysler and Yoshio
Ishizaka of Toyota will be among more than 50 speakers featured at the
University of Michigan's annual Management Briefing Seminars Aug. 3-7 at the
Grand Traverse Resort near Traverse City, Mich.
    More than 1,400 business and industry leaders are expected to attend
at least one of this year's eight seminars, which will focus on major trends
and issues in the automotive industry.
    The largest of these seminars, "Networking at the Boundaries," will be
held Aug. 5-7 and is expected alone to attract about 1,200 people.  This
automotive event -- widely considered the nation's premier conference of its
kind -- will address the need for the auto industry to quickly marshal
resources to respond to emerging and volatile competitive challenges.
    "Since key competitive resources will increasingly lie beyond traditional
functional, organizational and company boundaries, successful strategies will
be built on effective networking and rapid communication," says David E. Cole,
director of the U-M Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation.  "The
networks that link industry segments -- manufacturer and supplier, engineering
and marketing, dealer and customer -- will rely on electronic as well as human
interaction, as the industry explores creative responses to developing threats
and novel ways to pursue fresh opportunities."
    In addition, the U-M Management Briefing Seminars will feature two-day
sessions Aug. 3-4 on "Next Generation Lean Manufacturing Systems" (world-class
manufacturing) and "New Tools for Financial Management of Manufacturing."
Also, five half-day seminars will be offered Aug. 3-4 on "Managing Across
Boundaries" (integrated product-process development), "Transforming Product
Development Paradigms," "Factory Layout and Lean Manufacturing," "Lean Supply-
Chain Management" and "Field Failures, Warranty Costs and the Supply Chain."
    The seminars are sponsored by the Office for the Study of Automotive
Transportation at the U-M Transportation Research Institute and the Center for
Professional Development at the U-M College of Engineering.