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This study was designed to assess the role of secondary education in the employability of operators in the South African automotive industry. Five types of secondary education are referred to, namely, a secondary education including Mathematics and Science as subjects; a matriculation with Mathematics as a subject; a secondary education inclusive of Science as a subject; a technical type Grade 12 qualification and a general form of secondary education. A two-phase aptitude testing selection process, employing three sub-tests from the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT-K) and five from the Trade Aptitude Test (TRAT) batteries, was utilised to assess whether there were significant differences in aptitude test scores of applicants with different types of secondary education. These aptitude measures were administered to 2 463 preselected respondents. Descriptive statistics such as median, mode and frequency distribution graphs were used. Statistical analysis was also carried out, using the Chi-square test of independence, to determine the differences in aptitude test results obtained by the groups in the study. The study‟s findings revealed that the type of Grade 12 qualification held by applicants is an important criterion to be considered in the selection of automotive operators. The findings specifically indicated that a secondary education that included Mathematics and/or Science as subjects resulted in notable performance in the aptitude instruments employed in this study. The findings are broadly relevant to the South African automotive industry and are of value to human resource practitioners, educators, social scientists and other researchers.

The first objective of this thesis is to define the most significant benefits of a customer satisfaction strategy for a company. Especially, the effects on customer base, retention, loyalty, and last but not least on financials are discussed. Furthermore, three techniques of customer satisfaction measurement are critically assessed. Those are complaint management, customer satisfaction surveys, and mystery shopping. Secondly, a comprehensive customer satisfaction strategy for ŠKODA AUTO is defined based on theoretical knowledge regarding customer satisfaction and the specifics of automotive industry. The strategy comprises of four particular parts: generic approach, sales, after sales, and product.

No / This paper describes a study made into the application of PFMEA in a sample of suppliers to an automotive manufacturing company in the UK. The objectives of the research were to study the concerns and inhibitors that PFMEA users have, establish how the effectiveness could be determined, evaluate PFMEA use as a problem prevention technique and to recommend best practice. The research methodology included the use of interviews, workshops and questionnaires involving 150 quality approved suppliers. Conclusions were drawn to show that the PFMEA technique has its limitations, caused by a number of issues. Recommendations for overcoming these limitations of the PFMEA process are presented.

Organizational culture is a product of both internal and external factors. Leaders sometimes attempt to change culture using a variety of mechanisms, while the effects of external environment simultaneously exert influence. The external environment effects can be especially pronounced when comparing a traditional, Midwestern automotive firm (General Motors) with a Silicon Valley automotive startup (Tesla). A study was conducted to compare the social system of these two automakers and to identify some of the factors, both internal and external, shaping their culture. Data was collected on the employment history of engineers and managers using the social networking platform LinkedIn.com. Similarly, publicly-posted employee reviews were collected from the website Glassdoor.com and analyzed using a novel method for classifying and analyzing openorm written survey responses. Together, these records paint a picture of the employee perceptions of culture for both companies, the breadth of external experience represented in their workforces, and the tendency to fill management positions from internal candidates. The results suggest that external environment has broad effects on workforce experience, thereby creating certain cultural attributes such as loyalty or a drive to innovate. The results also suggest that promoting internal candidates more often does not necessarily lead to employee perception of better career opportunities. Taken together, the results reinforce but expand traditional views of organizational culture and call for further study on the matter across more industry groups.

The automotive industry has become a major user of magnesium components. However, use of magnesium sheet products is quite limited, due to difficulties in producing cost effective components. Any sheet currently produced is formed at elevated temperatures, making magnesium parts relatively expensive. Knowledge of the microstructural effects on magnesium formability will help reduce the cost of these products. In this thesis, the microstructural factors that affect the formability of rolled and extruded magnesium sheet were compared. It was found that the degree of dynamic recrystallization was the factor that controlled elongation. Dynamic recrystallization produced a finer grain size, which resulted in a transition in deformation mechanism from dislocation slip to grain boundary sliding. Digital image correlation was used to study local stresses during tensile deformation, and to determine if magnesium satisfies Considere's criterion before failure. The results indicated that local stresses developed during deformation satisfied Considere's criterion, although the global strains were lower than the theoretical predictions. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

The purpose of the submitted thesis "Automotive industry in the European area during the current world economy crisis and its perspectives" is an analysis of the position of automotive industry in the European room, including Russia and eastern Europe, and of its perspectives in times of emerging of new global automotive players. The automotive industry is considered within the passenger car segment. First part regards the determination of the world macro regions and the development of automotive industry, including its position at the present time after the impact of the world economy crisis. The second part shows the automotive industry in the European area and the third part shows the perspectives of the automotive industry in the future. The final part sums up the previous chapters with a particular example of French automaker Renault and his cooperation with Nissan and Dacia.

This thesis describes the influence of Foreign Direct Investment on the Polish car industry and main characteristics of its development. There are data concerning the amount of realized Foreign Direct Investment to Poland as well as the list of branches in which they are mostly allocated concerning the car industry. The thesis also describes the development of the Polish motorism including the characteristics of models produced there. The last part analyses the four biggest automobile companies on the Polish market, which are specialized in the production of private and commercial motor vehicles. There are also data about the quantity of production, export and sales of these vehicles.

The main goal of this thesis is to analyse market situation of Skoda Auto in the Czech republic during economic crisis, which began in autumn 2008. This thesis focuses on analysing situation in individual segments, where Skoda offers its products. Namely small cars segment, small MPVs, small SUVs, lower middle class and middle class. This thesis also features an analysis of used car market in the Czech republic, a research with experts, a SWOT analysis and a future forecast. The main source of data is a czech association of car importers and association of automotive industry. Conclusions are as follows : considerable fall of small cars and small MPVs segments, increase in sales in lower middle and middle class, loss of market share of Skoda in small cars and small MPVs segments, gain of market share in lower middle and middle class segments. One of the reasons is a higher ratio of private buyers in small cars and small MPVs segments. Private buyers are apparently more sensitive to economic crisis than firms. Situation in the rest of 2010 and in 2011 should be similar.

Orientador: Victor Orlando Gamarra Rosado / Banca: Mauro Hugo Mathias / Banca: Messias Borges Silva / Banca: Rosinei Batista Ribeiro / Banca: Luis Carlos Paschoarelli / Resumo: A utilização de autômatos tem se tornado um dos objetivos da indústria brasileira e, para tanto, faz-se necessário um estudo detalhado sobre a instalação e o uso dos robôs, considerando os aspectos ergonômicos e de segurança como parâmetros relevantes para as inserções desses equipamentos nas linhas de produção. Parte da região do Vale do Paraíba, delimitada pelos municípios de Porto Real, no estado do Rio de Janeiro e Taubaté, no estado de São Paulo, foi escolhida como alvo de estudo, por reunir considerável número de indústrias com características de produção e transformação automotiva. É mister comentar que o setor automotivo e de autopeças é reconhecido mundialmente como um dos principais na implantação de robôs em suas linhas de produção. Além do aspecto técnico, a região é relevante por sua localização geográfica e seu desenvolvimento econômico. O método empregado para conhecer a realidade da célula robótica foi a Apreciação Ergonômica do Sistema Homem-Tarefa-Máquina - SHTM, capaz de orientar os estudos. Para quantificar e qualificar os impactos sobre o componente humano foram utilizadas as seguintes ferramentas: Índice de Intensidade de Moore e Garg (1995) e a Avaliação Rápida dos Membros Superiores - RULA de McAtamney e Corlett (1993). O método e as ferramentas destacaram vários problemas explícitos de prejuízo aos operadores, como as: inadequações posturais, sobrecargas, freqüência e ritmos de execução de tarefas acima do limite adequado, excesso de deslocamentos, entre outros fatores. Tais constatações reforçam a suspeita sobre a ocorrência de falhas provenientes da ausência de estudos ergonômicos na instalação das células robóticas. O estudo também identificou problemas durante o processo de manutenção do autômato na célula robótica, momento em que, geralmente... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The automats has become an important Brazilian industry objective, in that way it is necessary do specific studies about the actual installation and use on industrial robots considering ergonomic and safe parameters that organize this equipment at the production lines. A part of the Vale do Paraíba region limited by two cities, Porto Real, Rio de Janeiro state and Taubaté, São Paulo state was chosen for this study for presents an automotive industry production favorable to receive automated machine like a robot. Economical development and good geographic position are main aspects to this region reinforce the proposal. Ergonomic Appreciation of the Man-Task-System-Machine - MTSM was the method used to study the choose system. To qualify and quantify the impact related to the man, during his work, was applied two different instruments: Index of Intensity - Moore and Garg (1995) and the Rapid Upper Limb Assessement - RULA - McAtamney and Corlett (1993). The results of Ergonomic Appreciation detach some inadequacies as: chemical contamination, postural deviation, over lift, rhythm and frequency above the limit, excess of movements and others disturbs may cause problems to the operators. The presence of such kind of ergonomic problems reinforces the suspicion about cells robotics installation that may be failing by the absence of ergonomic studies. This study also permitted to notice some industry easiness some accident aspects that occur specially with automat during a cell robot installation process, moment that a different professional teams works together creating a new relationship. It can be said that the human being valorization, the study of the real work and the harmonization between the ergonomics and the several sciences commonly used by the industries they are fundamental to control the risk characteristic... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor