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General Motors has offered to buy out all of its 74,000 hourly workers. Up to 56,000 workers could retire by 2011. That would help GM slash costs and catch up with its foreign rivals, but it would also create a huge knowledge gap on the plant floor.

This time it’s the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s turn. “Precision Factory Jobs in U.S. go Unfilled” the headline laments. The article then goes on to relate the trials of a precision parts maker in a small town in Pennsylvania that just can’t keep up with demand because of a lack of skilled workers.

Despite the current wailing and gnashing of teeth on Wall Street, there is yet more good news out of Detroit. Turns out at least one of the Big Three U.S. automakers really can make good cars and-surprise! surprise!-when it does, people will actually go out of their way to buy them.

Tata Motors Ltd. (Mumbai, India) just unveiled the 21st century version of the “people’s car,” the NANO. Ironically, this year also marks the centennial of the original "people's car," the Ford Model T.

When it comes to quality, talk is cheap. A manufacturer’s products ultimately have to walk the walk if they are to convince customers to part with their hard-earned cash. For years, this has been a problem for the Big Three. Quality has become synonymous with carmakers whose headquarters lie outside the United States. However, a recent analysis by Justin Hyde of the Detroit Free Press shows that this, like so much in the automotive industry these days, is changing

Have you heard the one about the three robots hanging out in a department store window? Believe it or not, it's not a joke.

The largest automaker in Iran, Iran Khodro Industrial Group, has just proposed that Islamic nations manufacture a “collective brand” of car to boost their economies, reduce dependency on Western countries and meet increasing local demand.

A recent announcement from two German companies pushes the concept of assembly outsourcing and supply chain management to an entirely new level.