Content about Manufacturing

German multinational engineering and electronics giant Bosch Group had a record-setting year in 2011 and the outlook remains positive for 2012.

In fiscal year 2011, the company best known for its automotive components achieved worldwide sales of $71.7 billion (€51.5 billion), recording its second highest rate of growth since 2000.

Famdra may be a small company, but its industrial weighing equipment is setting new standards for accuracy and cost effectiveness, as Gay Sutton discovers.

As the sole producer of rubber in Ghana, Ghana Rubber Estates Limited has been able to lay down the blue print for cash crop farming in the country; however, as managing director Lionel Barre tells Jane McCallion, the company has implemented a policy that prizes partnership with suppliers as much as it does profit.

Lean manufacturing is not about adopting Toyota’s tools, or using Japanese terminology, it’s a continuous improvement philosophy that becomes a way of life, says plant manager Billy Taylor.

Goodyear’s Fayetteville plant in North Carolina was struggling to survive in 2010. It was a high cost plant and it wasn’t meeting market demand. The plant was producing 31,200 tires a day, but the market wanted between 36,000 and 38,000. Something had to change.

The partnership between the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler reached a milestone today when state officials joined Nissan leaders to break ground on a new manufacturing facility in Decherd, Tennessee.

The new facility – located at the existing Nissan powertrain assembly complex – will produce Mercedes-Benz 4-cylinder gasoline engines for Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz models.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based LB Foster Company has completed the relocation of its threaded products water well group from Houston to a new facility in Magnolia, Texas.

The Magnolia plant uses advanced technology and has extended operating hours to increase production capacity. "The new facility provides our production team with single flow manufacturing that expedites the movement of pipe through our threading process," said Merry Brumbaugh, vice president, LB Foster Tubular Products.

Blackland Aerospace, LP, the aerospace component manufacturing platform of Dallas based private equity firm, Blackland Group, LLC, has acquired Lewis Machine Company.

Based in East Hartford, Connecticut, Lewis Machine specializes in manufacturing complex precision-machined components for clients in the commercial and military jet engine, airframe, missile and power plant industries.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett today cut the ribbon on Pratt Industries' new corrugated box plant, a facility that will bring at least 125 new jobs to Lehigh County.

The company established the new plant in Macungie to service its northeast United States customers. It will receive rolls of 100-percent recycled paper to convert into boxes and customized point-of-sale materials.

Jack Liebenberg,managing director of Tranter Rock Drills, talks to Jayne Alverca about leading the company through the latest phase of its evolution.

Tranter Rock Drills may be a relatively new commercial entity, but it has an industrial legacy that stretches back more than half a century. The Rock Drills division of Boart Longyear, known throughout the South African mining industry by the acronym SECO, was originally founded in 1934 and has honed its expertise in rock drills and airlegs since the 1950s.

Economic activity in the US manufacturing sector expanded in April for the 33rd consecutive month, according to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report On Business.

The Institute for Supply Management index of manufacturing activity rose to 54.8 last month, from 53.4 in March. An index figure above 50 indicates growth. The ISM's measure of employment in the sector also rose to a nine-month high.

Ford Motor Company has reported 2012 first quarter pre-tax operating profit of $2.3 billion, and net income of $1.4 billion, led by a strong performance in North America.

The overall results are down from 2011 first quarter pre-tax operating profit of $2.8 billion, and net income of $2.6 billion, partly due to weaker economic conditions in Europe, and partly due to tax considerations and special charges, such as buyouts of hourly workers in the US in accordance with the 2011 UAW agreement.

Raleigh, one of the UK’s best-known brands, has been sold to Netherlands-based Accell Group for €60 million.

Accell said the acquisition of Raleigh adds well-known global brands to its portfolio, further strengthening its position in North America and the UK in the markets for bicycles and bicycle parts & accessories.