This masters thesis aims to explore the possible implementation of the direct distribution model within the automotive industry. The goal is to outline the possible distribution strategy, using the direct distribution model, for an auto manufacturer. The theoretical background and cases that are used to describe the practical usage of the model are based on a secondary research. More specific aspects of the distribution model are then based on interviews conducted with professionals from the automotive industry. The proposed distribution strategy consists of combination of several direct distribution models. Different models are used due to the distinct nature of the products, considered in the process of new distribution model design. The implementation would allow the OEM to gain more control over the distribution process and create more efficient distribution system.

汽車行業已經發展了一百多年。由於價值鏈較長，供應鏈範圍廣泛，直接和間接就業人數眾多，所以在世界和許多國家的經濟中經常發揮關鍵作用。同時，由於技術含量高，進入壁壘高和供應鏈深度整合，汽車產業保持了穩定的結構。 近年來，互聯網（IoT）在社會上引起了更多的關注。硬件，軟件，商業模式和服務等方面的創新正在改變我們每一天的生活。一些行業和客戶的要求受到互聯網的影響。一些行業受到嚴重衝擊，例如阿里巴巴（Alipay）之於互聯網進入或Airbnb之於酒店業務。 客戶滿意度的競爭是公司發展和戰略的關鍵要素之一。客戶需求直接影響客戶滿意度;快速變化的客戶期望迫使公司做出迅速反應。創新是創意的應用;這可能是滿足新出現的客戶期望的方式之一，並提高客戶滿意度。 本研究將重點關注汽車產業;豪華品牌汽車公司因其創新的品牌認知和策略而被選中。本研究是基於與供應商，汽車製造商，經銷商和客戶等價值鏈夥伴的訪談。通過半結構化訪談和次級文件收集的方法，調查了互聯網技術如何影響產品和售後服務的創新以及汽車行業的客戶滿意度。 從分析收集和回顧行業實踐的數據得出的結論可以作為汽車行業參考，用於製定創新戰略和經營策略，以適應加速變化的商業環境。 / The automotive industry has been developing for more than 100 years. Because of the long value chain, the wide range of supply chain and the high amount of direct and indirect employments involved, it always plays a key role in the economy of the world and many countries. Meanwhile, because of the high technology, the finance entry barrier and the deeply integrated supply chain, the structure of automotive industry remains stable and consolidated, so far. In the recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted more attention in the society. The innovations on hardware, software, business models and services etc. are changing our life every day. Some industries and customer requirements have been impacted by the IoT, either visibly or unconsciously. Some industries have been heavily disrupted, e.g. the internet finance by Alibaba (Alipay) or the hotel business by Airbnb. The competition in Customer Satisfaction is one of the key elements of a company development and strategy. The customer requirement affects customer satisfaction directly; the fast changing customer’s expectations are forcing the companies to react dynamically. Innovation is the application of new ideas; this could be one of the ways to meet newly appeared customer’s expectations, and improve customer satisfaction. This study will focus on automotive industry; a luxury brand automotive company is selected due to its innovative brand equity and strategy. The study is based on interviews with the partners in value chain such as suppliers, automotive manufacturers, dealers and customers. With the help of semi-structured interviews and secondary documents collection, this study investigates how the IoT technology impacts the innovation on product and Aftersales, as well as the customer satisfaction in automotive industry. The conclusions drawn from analyzing the data collected and reviewing the industry practices can be used as a reference by the automotive industry for making innovation strategy and business strategy in order to adapt to the accelerated moving environment.

This research focuses on the degree of implementation of modularity and module supply by the automobile manufacturers in South Africa and the benefits they experience. Special attention was paid to the effect the modularity has on the local supplier base and the ability of small South African companies to support this supply concept. Lastly the factors influencing the car manufacturers’ outsourcing decision process was uncovered. The semi-structured face to face interviews with representatives of all light vehicle manufacturing companies operating in South Africa provided rich data for setting the background for further quantitative researches. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Supply Planning in the Automotive Industry is a vital ingredient for Supply Chain Integration. The role and function of a Supply Planner, although clearly defined in European developed methods, lacks the practical dimension. This paper describes such a practical approach that was developed for Supply Planning in the South African Automotive Industry. The framework highlights all the aspects – from a business and functional perspective - that need to be considered on a global and local scale. The framework describes the role and responsibilities of the Supply Planner as an active supply chain designer during the product/production development process. / Dissertation (MEng (Industrial Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Industrial and Systems Engineering / unrestricted

Over recent years, international trade flows of automotive products have experienced rising trends. Thus, the need to gain a better understanding of trade theories that could explain such trade flows. Until recently, the theoretical and empirical distinction of intra-industry trade (IIT) into patterns of horizontally differentiated (by variety) intra-industry trade (HIIT) and vertically differentiated (by quality) intra-industry trade (VIIT) has become crucial because each IIT pattern may potentially be influenced in different manners by country and industry factors (Greenaway, Hine&Milner, 1995). The objective of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, to measure the empirical significance of IIT in the automobile industry between South Africa and its bilateral trading partners and to decompose total IIT (TIIT) into VIIT and HIIT patterns. Secondly, to develop empirical models to investigate potential country- and industry-specific determinants of IIT patterns in the South African automobile industry. The empirical strategy adopted in this thesis is a gravity model spanning the period 2000 to 2007. The automobile industry is a principal industrial sector in the South African economy contributing notably to trade, investment, employment and national output. The structure and conduct of the industry is aligned with several elements of IIT theories and thus represents an important and fascinating case of IIT patterns to investigate. Therefore, the findings of this thesis will be valuable to trade policy analysts and manufacturers in the local and global automotive industries. According to the objectives, the significance of IIT is estimated using the trade overlap index and the empirical separation of total intra-industry trade (TIIT) into VIIT and HIIT is conducted using the threshold method. The empirical results reveal the presence of significant levels of IIT in automotive trade flows between South Africa and its bilateral trading partners. In accordance with theoretical expectations, the empirical investigation signifies the existence of high shares of VIIT dominating TIIT in the South African automobile industry. Moreover, the empirical analysis postulates that, within VIIT, the domestic automobile industry potentially produces and exports high quality automotive products proposing that such VIIT can be partly explained by fragmentation and international production processes. Next, gravity models are estimated to investigate the determinants of IIT patterns in the automobile industry. The econometric results of the gravity models of VIIT, HIIT and TIIT are statistically and economically significant in the context of the fixed effects method of estimation and in accordance with new trade theories. The empirical results reveal that relative difference in economic size, trade openness, foreign direct investment (FDI) and tariffs stimulates VIIT, whilst distance, economies of scale and automotive assistance negatively affect it. Conversely, relative difference in economic size, FDI and automotive assistance negatively affects HIIT, whereas trade openness and depreciation of the exchange rate positively influences it. Thus, the findings of the thesis assert that IIT patterns of VIIT and HIIT in the automobile industry are influenced differently by country and industry determinants, revealing that the theoretical and empirical distinction of TIIT is important. The thesis proposes advancing trade liberalisation and deregulation of the South African automobile industry that could attract greater efficiency-seeking FDI complementary to trade and as a consequence enhance IIT levels. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Economics / unrestricted

This thesis achieved the goal of obtaining high accuracy rates (precision and recall) in a real-time system that detects and recognizes text in the automotive context. For the sake of simplicity, this work targets two Objects of Interest (OOIs): North American (NA) traffic boards (TBs) and license plates (LPs). The proposed approach adopts a hybrid detection module consisting of a Connected Component Analysis (CCA) step followed by a Texture Analysis (TA) step. An initial set of candidates is extracted by highlighting the Maximally Stable Extremal Regions (MSERs). Each sebsequent step in the CCA and TA steps attempts to reduce the size of the set by filtering out false positives and retaining the true positives. The final set of candidates is fed into a recognition stage that integrates an open source Optical Character Reader (OCR) into the framework by using two additional steps that serve the purpose of minimizing false readings as well as the incurred delays. A set of of manually taken videos from various regions of Ottawa were used to evaluate the performance of the system, using precision, recall and latency as metrics. The high precision and recall values reflect the proposed approach's ability in removing false positives and retaining the true positives, respectively, while the low latency values deem it suitable for the automotive context. Moreover, the ability to detect two OOIs of varying appearances demonstrates the flexibility that is featured by the hybrid detection module.

This thesis deals with the transportation of commercial vehicles by British Columbia Ferries between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia. B. C. Ferries is a public enterprise operated under the Department of Transport and Communications of the Government of the Province of British Columbia. Background There are substantial changes occurring in ferry operations in British Columbia, particularly in ferrying commercial vehicles. Freight traffic associated with Vancouver Island is expanding rapidly. There is a growing emphasis on highway trucks and less on rail cars for freight. This is related to the increasing use of Vancouver as an assembly and distribution point for Island goods. Non-commercial traffic is also expanding. Privately operated ferries have upgraded their services as a consequence of the growing peak-season pressure of non-commercial vehicles on B. C. Ferries. In 1973 a new vessel increased the capacity of a Canadian Pacific Rail ferry service by some 60% and at the same time a new company, Tilbury Island Terminals Ltd., began operations. These changes call for an inspection of current commercial vehicle policy on B. C. Ferries. This thesis aims to identify and analyse the issues associated with commercial vehicle policies and to examine alternative policies. Analytical framework The discussion opens by examining the reasons for special government concern in transportation. In B. C, this concern has led to government intervention by participation in the ferry system. The present arrangement is an unregulated, mix public/private system. The policy variables open to the provincial government for influencing the ferry system are limited to the prices charged and the service levels provided by the public carrier, B. C. Ferries. An overall regulatory body is not possible because of jurisdictional considerations. The thesis discusses the effects of these two variables on the entire system and proposes objectives and criteria for setting them. A pricing model suggests that the optimal economic pricing policy of a public enterprise in competition with private enterprise is achieved when the public enterprise sets its rates to cover both fixed and variable costs, just as would a private enterprise. Data base Literature about ferry operations in the province, or in general, is sparse. This is partially remedied by a discussion of some general characteristics of ferry transportation, followed by an historical account of ferry operations in British Columbia. Certain themes emerge, notably the economic importance and political sensitivity of ferry services and the inhibition of private ferry investment associated with the participation of the government in the transportation market. A body of data, mostly from original sources, gives an account of current ferry operations in the province and includes inter-carrier comparisons together with data on traffic composition, peaking, revenues, costs and pricing. Traffic trends are identified and growth projections are made. The data suggests that there is an immediate problem in accommodating peak season demand for B. C. Ferries in the next few years. It suggests that privately owned capacity can help to relieve the problem. Analysis Three alternative B.C. Ferries commercial vehicle policies are examined in detail? (A) continuation of present policies, (B) total withdrawal from the commercial vehicle market and (C) partial withdrawal from the market. Short and long term effects are examined. Finally, the thesis compares the consequences of these alternative policies for B. C.Ferries capacity expansion, the effect on competitors and ferry users and the long term implications for government influence and private investment in the ferry system. The analysis shows that while present policies approach economic efficiency in commercial vehicle ferry operations, there are certain benefits to other ferry users of a (partial) withdrawal of B. C. Ferries from carrying commercial vehicles. These can be weighed, together with strategic and other policy considerations, in a final choice of policy. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Thesis analyzes the impact of development in the automotive industry on logistics providers and their services.

The diploma thesis shows the status of the automotive industry in the Czech Republic. It shows the trends in the Czech automotive industry in short theoretical presentation. There is a trend of the future competition from developing countries, other problems are growing raw material prices or government's limits in CO2 production. The companies connected to the automotive industry are reacting. The relevant information about the status and reactions of the Czech automotive industry companies, especially at the time of the crisis, was gained. The work answers the main question: How will the situation look like in the Czech automotive industry after the end of the crisis.

This diploma thesis describes the main causes of the automotive crisis in the first half of 2009 and their influence on this industry in the world. It also shows the effort of selected countries to fight these consequences and to support the demand for cars. One section is also devoted to situation in Czech Republic and to one of the Czech supplier to OEM car manufacturers.