Brazil-based Embraer recently opened its first North American facility in Florida, a development that highlights the international nature of the aerospace industry. In years past, Boeing planes were built in Seattle, and Airbus planes were built at a few facilities across Europe. Now, the industry has an international supply base much like the automotive industry. Suppliers who were captive to one OEM are now providing parts to other OEMs, with the supply base supporting Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, Embraer, and Comac. But what does this shift mean for the industry? Read More

This week I’m preparing to attend the HyperWorks Technology Conference (HTC) in Pune, India. This is part of the 2011 Global HTC Series. The events so far in Tokyo, Japan and Orlando, Florida have been well attended and have included some great customer presentations in addition to excellent keynotes. India will be no exception with, among others, Charlie Loh from Jaguar Land Rover addressing the “Journey from Physical to Virtual Verification” and Suresh Nandagopal, President, Autoliv India providing a “Safety Outlook for Automotive”.
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There was a story in USA Today this week with the headline “American muscle cars outselling fuel-thrifty hybrids despite $4 gas”. It is a pretty entertaining fact and while for the month of May it was true that Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger outsold all Hybrids added together, it is not the whole story. The Car Connection did a good job of breaking down the numbers and putting them in context.

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This week we finished a set of 5 automotive industry webinars that showcased some technologies and methods to assist in the constant fight to reduce cost and timing while exciting consumers with innovative, better performing products.

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