The first low-beam headlights appeared on automobiles 100 years ago. Today, engineers are scrambling to develop a new generation of smart headlights that will soon make traditional products as obsolete as kerosene lanterns.

DEARBORN, MI—Ford Motor Co. plans to install 25,000 energy-efficient LED light fixtures at its plants.

WARREN, MI—Chrysler engineers revamped more than 350 workstations at a 76-year-old assembly plant here to boost production of the popular Ram pickup truck.

The recent slew of recalls in the auto industry is disturbing. What happened to all those Sig Sigma and lean manufacturing initiatives that are supposed to error-proof assembly?

AUBURN, AL—Rausch & Pausch GmbH (RAPA), a German manufacturer of solenoid valves, control blocks and other auto parts, plans to build a new assembly plant here.

BELDEN, MS—Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi and four local community colleges are launching a program to train people for advanced manufacturing jobs.

DETROIT—Automakers just reported their strongest monthly sales in five years. Will the trend continue in 2013?

ANN ARBOR, MI—The Automated Imaging Association is presenting a free webinar Dec. 18 that will discuss machine vision applications for automotive assembly. The webinar will air from 11 a.m. to noon EST.

TOKYO—Automotive supplier Denso Corp. wants to form a research group with automakers and other suppliers to study driver stress.