BRIEFING: New automobile plants blaze trail in new technology and best practice

With technological change being forced upon the auto manufacturing industry plants are being retooled faster than in living memory. At such a time, companies are always looking for new ideas and technology. The best place to assess new practices and machinery is always going to be a recently built or upgraded plant, because it is here that managers have tested them out on making vehicles. So, just-auto told three reporters on three continents to pick a plant that was well-known for innovation and to examine how they went about their business: one in north America, one in Europe, and another in Japan. This briefing aims to catch a glimpse of the future for auto manufacturing, and how these plants could be showing the way forward in a sector about to embark on wholesale change.