Tractor manufacturer Bobcat marks its 50th anniversary this month. ASSEMBLY profiled the facility in the June 2007 issue.

If you think you work too much, maybe you better slow down. If not, you may end up like an engineer at a Japanese automaker who recently worked himself to death.

Assembly plant managers and line supervisors take note: At some point in their careers, your assemblers have thought, “My boss thinks he’s so smart, but I’d like to see him try my job for a while. He’d never make it.”

Many manufacturers are faced with skyrocketing costs these days. As a result, the tendency at some companies is to cut, cut, cut. But, it may not be the best strategy to follow.

Michigan, Alabama and Tennessee are vying to host Volkswagen’s new U.S. assembly plant and its concomitant 2,000 jobs. Who will win? Here’s the latest!

Free markets are a lot like democracy, wonderful in theory, but often very messy in practice. Case in point: the U.S. economy is looking pretty messy right now, to say the least.

For many years, American automakers have talked about how “flexible” their factories are. But, now that the industry is shifting its gears to produce fuel-efficient cars, why can't the same factories that assembled pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles in the past be used to produce subcompact sedans?