CANTON, MS—Workers at Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.’s assembly plant here voted nearly two to one against representation by the United Auto Workers. The vote at the end of a bitterly contested campaign extended a decades-long record of failure by the union to organize a major automaker’s plant in the South.
Manufacturers of complex products, such as engines and transmissions, have long been using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to error-proof their processes, document quality, and deal with high-mix production.
If poet Gertrude Stein had also worked as an assembly machine operator, could she have ever written the line, “a rivet is a rivet is a rivet”? No one can say for sure, but it’s highly unlikely since operators know that rivets are distinctive in their design and function, as well as how they are installed.
That modern life can, and often does, imitate popular art is well established, even to the point of being a cliché. Much less commonplace is life improving upon art.
In manufacturing, the latest innovations in equipment, processes and materials often get tested first by automotive OEMs or Tier 1 suppliers. A good example of this is the Polimotor, an all-plastic engine that inventor Matti Holtzberg has worked on for nearly 40 years.
In April, President Donald Trump made good on a campaign promise and ordered the Commerce Department to conduct a “Section 232” review of steel imports. A provision of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Section 232 authorizes the gov-ernment to take action to limit imports of products if they threaten national security.
DETROIT—UAW President Dennis Williams said independent, outside counsel would lead an internal investigation into allegations that union officials were illegally funneled $1.2 million by Fiat Chrysler’s former labor chief.
DEARBORN, MI—Exactly 100 years ago today—July 27, 1917— the first Ford Model TT truck rolled out of the assembly plant, beginning an American love affair with pickups that still burns hot.