Automotive Assembly

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MILWAUKEE—U.S. employers reported a boost in confidence as the percent of employers planning to add staff, 22 percent, has reached a four-year high, according to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.

WASHINGTON—For 2013 as a whole, manufacturing production should increase 3.1 percent from 2012, according to the Manufacturing Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. Manufacturing is predicted to grow 3.6 percent in 2014, 0.8 percentage points faster than the overall economy.

GAINESVILLE, GA—Auto parts maker ZF Industries has opened its third U.S. assembly plant here. The new plant will produce clutches and other power train components for midsize and heavy trucks.

CHATTANOOGA, TN—Volkswagen’s assembly plant here has exceeded the economic impact projected when the company announced its initial investment in 2008, according to a new study by economists at the University of Tennessee. Including direct employment, employee spending and suppliers, the VW plant produced approximately 12,400 new jobs.

DETROIT—The federal government plans to sell another 30 million shares of General Motors stock in a public offering today as it speeds up efforts to divest itself from a stake in the auto giant that it got in a bailout four years ago.

EVANSVILLE, IN—Systems integrator Evana Automation Specialists recently delivered a clutch assembly line to American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. The line integrates both fully and semiautomatic processes.

Both Lear Corp. and Hyundai Motor Manufacturing have found a manufacturing home in Montgomery, AL. Lear operates a plant that makes and delivers seats to the nearby Hyundai plant for just-in-time installation in Sonata sedans and Sante Fe SUVs.

Manufacturing engineers have two options for obtaining an automated assembly system. They can get each component—an automatic screwdriver, a rotary indexing dial, a gripper—from individual suppliers and integrate the parts themselves. Or, they can ask one supplier to deliver a turnkey machine.

Recent headlines have provided stark reminders that cheap manufactured goods from overseas often come at the expense of human lives.

LAFAYETTE, IN—Nearly half of all Subarus sold globally are driven in the United States, and almost all of those will be assembled in Indiana.