The globalization of the automotive industry has been on a strong growth trajectory over the past 20 years.  Some companies had been international companies since the 1930s, but global companies with globally integrated manufacturing, product development, purchasing, and R&D are relatively new.  We saw the IT revolution of the late 1990s and early 2000s as one of the main enablers of global integration with its ability to link distant company offices via real-time video conferencing that supported 24/7 product development and R&D.  Modeling and simulation software supported advanced manufacturing as well as global product development and R&D.  Early global purchasing auctions that took place over the Internet completely changed the playing field as suppliers from anywhere in the world could bid on and win projects with manufacturers anywhere in the world.

The opening of global markets such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia created new opportunities for manufacturers and suppliers to sell their vehicles and components to large, untapped populations.  The decision of exporting to these new markets or building plants in these countries became an important one with both profit and labor implications.  Manufacturers worked hard to develop global platforms from which they could generate greater economies of scale than they did with their regional entities.  Integrated global platforms required engineers from different countries who didn’t normally interact with their counterparts in the home country of the manufacturer to work together on these platforms with varying degrees of success. 

This conference on globalization of the automotive industry will focus on the recent past, the current state, and the future trends in the industry including the growth of global platforms and architectures, potential manufacturer and supplier consolidation due to the need for global volumes, the introduction of new technologies such as advanced safety systems and alternative powertrains, the role of automotive labor movements in developed and developing economies, the globalization trends in manufacturer and supplier purchasing, manufacturing, product development, and R&D, and the challenges companies continue to face as they globalize their operations. 

This conference will also introduce two groups to our audience:  The first group, GlobalAutoIndustry.com, specializes in helping companies keep abreast of all the unique challenges companies face as they globalize, and the second group, GERPISA: The International Network of the Automobile (http://gerpisa.org/en) is a group of international researchers who have been studying the global automotive industry for the past 24 years.  Every year GERPISA, which is based in France, puts on a colloquium that draws from its network of over 1,000 researchers in industry and academia.  This year the colloquium will take place in Puebla, Mexico on June 1-3 and will feature research papers on its sixth international program entitled, The “New Frontiers” of the world automotive industry: technologies, applications, innovations and markets.