Automotive Manufacturing Solutions Magazine – Issue 2, 2025
As we move deeper into 2025, Automotive Manufacturing Solutions continues to track the seismic shifts reshaping the global automotive industry. Available today, Issue 2 of the AMS magazine dives into smart factory innovations, regional production strategies in the US amid trade upheavals, megacasting advancements, and sustainability paradoxes. Get your copy in print or read digitally, and gain insights from Bosch, BMW, Dräxlmaier, Ford, Hyundai, JLR and more.
Is collaboration the missing piece in unlocking advanced production potential?
Cyber-attacks, tariffs, and geopolitical tensions are dominating headlines, forcing automotive manufacturers to adapt at breakneck speed. Yet amid the chaos, one theme stands out: the power of collaboration in building resilient, efficient operations.
In this Autumn edition, we explore how OEMs and suppliers are leveraging cross-functional teamwork, digital tools, and innovative processes to navigate uncertainty. Bosch's Dr Hanns Bernd Ketteler shares how simultaneous engineering and departmental synergy are driving operational excellence. BMW's iFactory comes to life at Debrecen, showcasing flexible EV production, while Dräxlmaier reveals its genAI roadmap for shopfloor visualisation.
We also zoom in on North America - where AMS and its audience already has a foothold - and where tariffs are redrawing the production map; prompting policy reversals, delayed EV investments, and bold new alliances like GM-Hyundai. Plus, expert takes on megacasting's scalability, wire harness automation breakthroughs, and the counterintuitive idea that sustainable manufacturing might mean producing less.
With era-defining news on cyber disruptions at JLR, immigration raids impacting Hyundai-LG's Georgia plant, and major investments from Toyota, Proton, Ford, and Hyundai, this issue captures the industry's pulse. As the shift to EVs slows and digitalisation accelerates, collaboration isn't just a catchline, but a blueprint for production survival.
Buy it now in print, or read it online today.
Features include:
- Bosch – Cross-functional collaboration | Americas
Dr Hanns Bernd Ketteler, Bosch Mobility Americas’ top executive for operations, explains how collaboration across departments, simultaneous engineering and digital tools are helping the automotive supplier stay competitive in fast-changing times.
- BMW Debrecen – iFactory concept in action | Smart Factory
BMW’s new Debrecen plant represents a significant leap forward in automotive manufacturing, embodying the OEM’s iFactory concept through innovative production operations and cutting-edge technologies.
- DRÄXLMAIER – Shopfloor visualisation and genAI in production | Smart Factory
COO Arno Güllering discusses how the tier-1 supplier has established a highly connected production and logistics network, with a strong emphasis on data visualisation and a roadmap for AI.
- How Megacasting is reshaping automotive manufacturing | Innovation deep dive
In the quest for vehicle production efficiency, few innovations have captured the automotive industry’s imagination quite like megacasting. Carmakers are pouring billions into the technology. But can this radical approach scale sustainably?
- Tariffs redraw North American auto production map | Regional Focus
Recent changes in US trade policy, notably around increased tariffs, and geopolitical issues have increased uncertainty and unpredictability in the North American automotive manufacturing sector. Carmakers rush to recalibrate…
- The paradox of sustainable production: Why less might mean more | Sustainability
Automotive producers chase complex technologies for greener production, yet the most effective sustainability gains come from fundamental simplicity: making less, wasting less, and questioning whether volume growth remains viable.
