Annual Management Briefing Seminars on auto industry

EDITORS: Media interested in attending the seminars or obtaining complete agendas should contact Bernie DeGroat at the number above or the Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation, (734) 764-5592.

ANN ARBOR—G. Richard Wagoner will give his first major U.S. presentation since becoming chief executive officer and president of General Motors Corp. when he addresses the University of Michigan’s 35th annual Management Briefing Seminars Aug. 7-12 at the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa near Traverse City, Mich.

The conference focuses on auto industry trends and issues and will feature Jim Holden, president of DaimlerChrysler Corp.; Toshiaki Taguchi, president of Toyota Motor North America Inc.; Martin Inglis, vice president of Ford North America, Ford Motor Co.; J.T. Battenberg, chairman, president and CEO of Delphi Automotive Systems; and Bill Carroll, president of Dana Corp.

Annually, these seminars attract more than 1,400 global automotive industry leaders.

“Auto 2000: Fasten Your Seatbelts,” Aug. 9-11, will address what surely will be dramatic and significant changes in the auto industry in the years ahead, says U-M researcher and auto industry expert David E. Cole, who will host the seminar.

“Certainly, an explosion is under way in technology with the ever-growing role for advanced electronics and materials, as well as the possible emergence of a revolutionary powertrain,” says Cole, of the U-M Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation (OSAT). “The manufacturing environment director of the U-M is being altered significaantly as we bring the personal computer to the shop floor in facilities that require much lower investment and include far more flexible manufacturing systems.”

Other seminars, held Aug. 7-8, will focus on specific issues in manufacturing, information technology, warehousing, product-process development, e-commerce, value stream mapping and lean logistics.

The seminars are sponsored by OSAT, a division of the U-M Transportation Research Institute, and the Center for Professional Development at the U-M College of Engineering.

Office for the Study of Automotive TransportationDavid E. ColeTransportation Research Institute