Automative Industries

1 Overview and Methodology

The aim of the case studies in the FutMan project is to integrate and focus the results

from the analysis of the three projects strands (i.e. materials, transformation

processes and industrial organisation) for key sectors of manufacturing in Europe.

This case study is dealing with the automotive industry concentrating on the manufacturing

of personal cars. To get a picture of the current trends and expected future

developments in the automotive industry, a variety of literature sources was evaluated.

To underpin the results and to introduce different perspectives, interviews with

experts from the sectors were carried out by the FutMan project consortium. The

interview partners in the automotive sector were European experts working at different

stages in the value chain. Approximately 20 of the experts interviewed were

directly involved into manufacturing of personal cars. Some others could provide

insights into the automotive sector from other perspectives (e.g. automation or instrumentation).

The results of these interviews constitute an important part of this

case study.

This report is proceeding as follows. In section 2 some basic information about the

structure of the European automotive industry is given. Ongoing changes in the

organisation of the manufacturing of personal cars are described. In section 3 socioeconomic

developments that are driving this sector are identified. Section 4 discusses

the main technological trends that are emerging in the manufacturing of personal

cars at the moment. As manufacturing is heavily depending on the characteristics

of the cars that will be produced in the future, this section is organised