Automobile Plant Research Articles

Impact of increasing workforce racial diversity on black-white disparities in cardiovascular disease mortality

BackgroundStructural racism’s influence on workforce policies and practices presents possible upstream targets for assessing and reducing racial health disparities. This study is the first to examine workforce racial diversity in...

Evacuation of Moscow Automobile Plant named after Stalin during Great Patriotic War: from Projects to Implementation

This study examines the process of evacuating Soviet automotive industry enterprises during the Great Patriotic War using the example of the Moscow Automobile Plant named after I. V. Stalin. The relevance of the research is justified by the necessity to reconstruct the activities of the highest bodies of party-state management during the industrial evacuation. Archive documents of the Evacuation Council under the People’s Commissariat of the USSR were analyzed. The Council operated from June to December 1941 as a commission under the Soviet government and was responsible for evacuating enterprises and institutions. The sources of the study were documents of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, the highest body of party-state power in the country during the Great Patriotic War. Correspondence between the plant management and various institutions and departments, as well as evacuation reports, were used as research materials. The existing evacuation options for of the Moscow Automobile Plant named after I. V. Stalin, discussions among Soviet agencies on the location of the plant in rear areas of the country were examined. Based on statistical summaries and reports, the intensity of the evacuation process and its outcomes were studied. It is concluded that the evacuation of the Moscow Automobile Plant named after I. V. Stalin contributed to preserving the country’s industrial potential and had a long-term positive impact on the development of the Soviet automotive industry.

Class versus climate? Transformation conflicts in the automotive industry

ABSTRACT Major ecological threats such as climate change affect everyone, but do not level out social inequalities. The neglect of class in ecological politics means that measures against global warming often encounter social barriers and the social-ecological transformation becomes conflict-ridden. Based on in-depth empirical research at two German car manufacturers, the article shows how management and labour in a carbon industry deal with the transformation. With the help of concepts from class theory, the car plants analysed are described as class societies in miniature. They constitute social fields in which the transformation changes the rules of the game by which the company actors act. Company interest groups and trade union structures, as well as external veto players (climate movements, the far right) have a significant impact on conflict dynamics. In each case, it can be seen that institutionally contained class conflicts in co-determined companies are increasingly turning into social-ecological transformation conflicts. These are multi-level conflicts in which ownership-based decision-making power plays a central role. No ecological class is emerging beyond production. Instead, a transformation corporatism is asserting itself, which is coming up against class-specific limits in the decision-making monopoly over business models.

Bacterial decontamination of process liquids and paints in E-coating lines by pulsed electric field treatment

Cultivation-based and DNA-based methods for determining the bacterial load and the composition of the bacterial spectrum have been successfully established for media in electrodip painting, and used for the detailed analysis of the contamination situation in an E-coating system of an automobile plant in Germany. Dominating representatives of the genus Microbacterium spp., the orders Burkholderiales and Pseudomonadales, the family Cytophagaceae and the genera Corynebacterium spp., Sphingomonas spp., and Stenotrophomonas spp. were used for inactivation experiments. Different pulsed electric field (PEF) parameters were studied for an effective and target-directed inactivation of defined bacterial suspensions containing mixtures of Gram-positive as well as Gram-negative bacteria, but also single species suspensions in adequate liquids. PEF treatment with pulse durations longer than 1.0 µs effectively killed bacteria even in low conductivity media, regardless of whether the pulses were unipolar or bipolar, indicating that the choice of pulse shape does not limit the design of the PEF system. Model calculations showed that for efficient treatment in bypass mode, a high treatment flow rate is required rather than a high inactivation efficiency of the PEF treatment. By using specific treatment parameters, such as bipolar pulses of 50 k Vcm−1 and a treatment energy of 40 J mL−1, a significant reduction in both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria (> 2 log10 reduction) can be achieved while minimizing electrode corrosion and coating degradation. PEF treatment proves to be an effective alternative to the use of biocides in an E-coating system and can help maintain a bacteriostatic environment in the system by operating at different points, in transfer flow or bypass mode, ensuring biocide-free operation.

Public Discussion in Russia on Foreign Automobile Purchases and Import Substitution during First World War

The article examines the issue of Russian automobile transport’s dependence on foreign purchases during the First World War and the absence of a developed domestic automotive industry. For the first time, this question is explored through the prism of discussions held at public organization meetings, in the State Duma, and in the pages of periodicals. Special attention is paid to the importance of automobiles during the war, criticism of the existing situation in the automotive transport sector, the inadmissibility of its complete dependence on foreign states, and the necessity of import substitution through the creation of domestic automobile plants and related enterprises. New sources are introduced into the scholarly discourse, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding of both the problems that have arisen in the field of automobile transport and their perception by Russian society. It is noted that, despite differences in approaches to organizing the domestic automotive industry, participants in the public discussion unanimously agreed on the need to overcome the situation that existed before the war, the inadmissibility of total dependence on foreign supplies in a matter of great importance to military affairs, and the urgency of developing national production of automobile transport on a state scale.

IoT Real-Time Production Monitoring and Automated Process Transformation in Smart Manufacturing

Conventional automobile manufacturing plants involve intricate assembly, testing, and debugging processes heavily reliant on manual operations. This study aims to explore the application of industrial internet of things (IIoT) and deep learning algorithms to achieve process automation in manufacturing. Firstly, utilizing IIoT technology, OPC UA, and point cloud fitting techniques, a comprehensive modeling of most equipment and materials within the factory is conducted, constructing a digital twin (DT) model as a virtual representation of actual equipment. Subsequently, the study innovatively introduces the deep Q network algorithm, facilitating the automatic transition of the production process and improving production efficiency. Through comparison with ten baseline models, the proposed model demonstrates an improvement in production efficiency of at least four percentage points compared to other models. Experimental validation confirms the effectiveness of the proposed model in the smart factory for electric vehicle manufacturing.

State management of real estate of industrial and transport in an unstable economy

The research topic is relevant due to the demonstrated principles of economic sovereignty within the economic development strategy of the Russian Federation and the implementation of new mechanisms of public administration. The study analyses government action under current recessional conditions focused on the management of the real estate of industrial associations and transport infrastructure. In the article, real estate assets within these sectors are collectively categorised as subjects in the public administration system, being closely connected and forming the basis for the economic security of the country. According to the authors, real estate should be considered a controlled and manageable resource, given its substantial monetary value. As an example of state management of this resource, the article examines the operations of federal services, along with the processes occurring in the automotive, aircraft manufacturing and transport infrastructure sectors. The article examines the assets of foreign automobile plants that departed due to sanctions, focusing on industrial facilities in major Russian cities. The measures of state support for the infrastructure of the automotive and aircraft industries in accordance with the strategies outlined by the Ministry of Industry and Trade are explored. The aircraft industry is studied in the context of the emergence of government orders and the operations of the public joint-stock company United Aircraft Corporation The transport industry is considered as an industry supported by the state through financing new infrastructure facilities and reconstruction of existing ones.

Long-term influenza antibodies profiles in previously vaccinated and non-vaccinated adults

ABSTRACT The aim of this work is to describe the dynamics of influenza antibodies after vaccination in adults. We conducted a case-cohort serological study in the automobile manufacturing plants of the Renault España S.A. group in Valladolid and Palencia (Spain), including 550 workers (66.9%) previously vaccinated against influenza (group V), and 272 (33.1%) never vaccinated (group NV). A pre-vaccination serum sample was collected, another after 30–40 days and another after 6 months. The dynamics of antibodies were analyzed. A lower seroprotection of NV before vaccination was observed, but an antibody response between 2 and 4 times higher than in V was assessed. After 6 months, antibodies declined in both groups until equalize. Antibodies titers decrease with age, and no differences were found among underlying pathologies. Adults never vaccinated against influenza had lower seroprotection than those previously vaccinated, but influenza vaccination produces a more intense serological response in them, acquiring significantly higher antibody titers than those previously vaccinated. The antibodies, although in lower titers, persist and equalize among both groups at least 6 months after vaccination, which allows the individual to be protected during the entire circulation of the influenza virus in the same season.

Etapy trudnogo puti: Ul'yanovskij avtomobil'nyj zavod v gody Velikoj Otechestvennoj vojny

The article analyzes the performance of the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant during the Great Patriotic War. The process of reorganization of the enterprise in 1944, the construction of a new car factory and the preparation for the production of a vehicle with a diesel engine ZIS-253 are considered. It was concluded that the difficulties of wartime, the acute shortage of building materials and labor resources did not allow the full implementation of the project to create a new diesel engine production.

METHODS FOR DETERMINING MICROCLIMATE PARAMETERS UNDER CLOTHES

When using the overalls, metabolic products accumulate under it - sweat in the form of a vapour-gas and wet phase. To increase productivity of workers and maintain a comfortable body ambience, that is, an optimal microclimate under special clothing, it is important to remove accumulated moisture and other metabolic products as soon as possible. The method for solving this problem should be aimed at normalizing the state of heat exchange by the human body, associated with the level of severity of labor and changes in the parameters of the external environment. The problem can be solved by improving the design of work-wear or the hygienic properties of the work-wear cloth. This article determines parameters of the ambience under special clothing made of a new fibrous gauze recommended for workers in the automotive industry and compares the findings. The level of comfort of the microclimate in special clothes made of gas with a new composition of fibers with increased hygienic properties, recommended for workers in assembly shops of automobile plants, has been maintained.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ СТАБИЛИЗАЦИИ КОЛЬЦЕВЫХ ЗАГОТОВОК

Ring blanks are in demand in various branches of mechanical engineering in the production of large-sized bearings, turbine disks, special gears and other critical products. Besides high requirements to the ring blanks in terms of geometric dimensional accuracy, material structure and mechanical properties, in some cases the most important requirement is their production with absence of residual stresses and high stability of geometric shape. Specific features of ring rolling may lead to the occurrence of residual stresses, the magnitude of which is impossible to determine by the known methods of defect control. The paper analyzes the causes of shape error and residual stresses in the production of ring blanks in the process of ring rolling and heat treatment. The article also assesses the possibility of using different methods of shape stabilization and reduction of residual stresses in the manufacture of ring blanks for critical engineering products: expandable, thermal, thermomechanical, vibratory and ultrasonic treatment. For ring blanks designed for manufacturing critical parts, it is suggested to use shape stabilization and residual stresses reduction by means of cyclic loading after ring rolling and thermal treatment. The design scheme and force parameters of a device for stabilizing ring blanks on the basis of a double-acting lever-hinge mechanism are determined. The ring-rolling complex created at the Belarusian Automobile Plant will have potential opportunities to produce ring blanks for manufacturing of critical products in transport machine-building, aviation, space, defense and chemical industries of the Russian Federation. The results of the analysis of the methods for shape stabilization and reduction of residual stresses of ring blanks are planned to be used in the creation of this complex.

Yushchenko – Chernavkin Radio Method: A Milestone in the History of Scientific Institutionalization of Biotelemetry

A novel method of dynamic biotelemetry (“radio method”) was first developed in the USSR in the early 1930s. This method enabled studying physiological parameters of biological objects in their natural environment, and implied creating a technical complex consisting of a device placed on the biological object under study to capture a particular physiological parameter, radio equipment for wireless (only) transmission and reception the respective parameters, and the means for recording radio-transmitted data. The author of the idea of radio method was A. A. Yushchenko, head of the physiological department of the Communist Academy’s Institute of Higher Nervous Activity; its technical implementation was achieved by L. A. Chernavkin, junior researcher and engineer who worked at the Institute; and was used as a research method in the studies carried out by the Department members V. Ya. Kryazhev (1931) and S. A. Kharitonov (1932, 1937). In animal experiments radio method enabled obtaining radically new data about reflexes and higher nervous system activity. The attempts were made to use this method in human physiology research (inter alia, at the specially created laboratory at the I. V. Stalin First State Automobile Plant). Studies in the field of radio method were terminated because of Yushchenko’s untimely death and objective technical complexities. The next stage in the development of biotelemetry only began in the late 1940s.

Белорусско-китайские отношения на современном этапе

The paper characterizes the main stages of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Belarus in the 1990s and in the 21st century. Special attention is paid to the interaction between the leaders, the governments and legislative bodies of the two states in the political and socio-economic spheres. A detailed characterization of bilateral humanitarian cooperation is given. The main directions of interaction between the two countries within the framework of the implementation of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative are shown. The specifics of the development of the Chinese-Belarusian relations within the Great Stone Industrial Park, which has become a kind of symbol of cooperation between the two countries, are determined. Attention is also paid to such an important Chinese-Belarusian project as the Belji automobile plant.

When the business goal is quality

Today, the Ural Automobile Plant, located in the small Ural city of Miass, is one of the leading Russian manufacturers of trucks and special passenger vehicles. The company continuously works to improve the company's business processes, takes care of creating a comfortable and safe workplace environment and offers employees one of the most solid packages of social guarantees and benefits in the Chelyabinsk region. All this is done with one goal — to improve the quality of products, working conditions and life of the team. In the spring of 2022, the Ural Automobile Plant became a diploma winner of the 25th anniversary competition for the RF Government Award in the field of quality. What is the quality management system at the enterprise, how the competition was held, and what merits and achievements of the company were noted by the members of the expert commission, will be discussed in this publication.

A hybrid model for value‐added process analysis of manufacturing value chains

AbstractIn the digital era, realising intelligent digital transformation is a major challenge in the manufacturing field. Digital transformation means bringing more profit appreciation. To improve the analysis reliability of value‐added processes, this study proposes a method for assessing enterprises value‐adding activities. For this purpose, a hybrid model is constructed based on data and mathematics, bridged by a server. The research builds an element group model that identifies data from different sources, and also gives a mathematical model to describe the relationship of the supply, marketing and service. Taking an automobile manufacturing value chain as an example, to theoretically analyse the composition of value‐added activities. Then, the assembly process of an automobile manufacturing plant was used as a value‐added case study. The simulation results show the impact of changing production layout and product handling angle on the whole value chain. The study can provide new ideas for the intelligent digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.

Emission characteristics, risk assessment and scale effective control of VOCs from automobile repair industry in Beijing

Automobile repair is regarded as a typical domestic source of VOCs in China characterized by numerous sites, wide dispersion and intermittent VOCs emissions. It is of great importance to study and control VOCs from such activities. In this research, emission characteristics, risk assessment and scale effective control of VOCs from automobile repair in Beijing were studied. Results showed that coating spraying and baking were the main processes of VOCs and the major species determined were mostly oxygen-containing VOCs and aromatic hydrocarbons in the case of solvent-based coating usage. Meanwhile, alkanes were determined and accounted for 40 % of total VOCs emissions during the water-based coating spraying and baking. Generally, the total determined VOCs during the automobile repair processes were 1.06–1.27 mg/m3 and 2.93–53.46 mg/m3 for the usage of water-based and solvent-based paint, respectively. Health risk assessments indicated that the residents in the region about 30 m high within a radius of 20 m around the automobile repair plants might suffer from both serious non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk threats in the case of solvent-based coating usage in that the values of total hazard index (HI) represented by dichloropropane and acrolein were higher than 1 and the value of lifetime cancer risk (LCR) represented by dichloroethane was higher than 10−5. Besides, those in the region about 30 m high and within a wider radius of 340 m might suffer from carcinogenic risk threat with a certain probability (LCR > 10−6) no matter either solvent-based or water-based coatings were used. As for the scale control of VOCs from automobile repair, independent adsorption by activated carbon combined with mobile regeneration by catalytic combustion was also proposed as an efficient way.

Availability Analysis of the Critical Production System in SMEs Using the Markov Decision Model

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in today’s world have numerous issues in ensuring the availability and safety of critical machines and their components in the working environment. As a result, SMEs considered planning and scheduling maintenance tasks to be a significant threat. The goal of this research is to identify the critical subsystem of the automobile spare parts production plant in the southern region of Tamil Nadu, India, and then to prioritize the maintenance activity and set up an architecture for autonomous preventive maintenance (PM) in SMEs that includes an optimal decision support system. The transition state diagram of the individual and simultaneous production system has been developed with the application of the Markov decision model approach. It was used to analyze the present variables of the production systems and forecast the optimal maintenance parameters such as the failure rate and the repair rate, through the production system’s availability analysis. This availability analysis reveals that system B (Piercing) is classified as the most critical because of the abrupt availability variation compared to all other production systems, concerning the corresponding maintenance parameters such as a failure rate of 0.0371, a repair rate of 0.7094, and the availability of the piercing system of 0.5056. Finally, the use of an autonomous PM management system and the most effective maintenance workforce has enhanced productivity and customer satisfaction in SMEs. The predictive maintenance management system has been further investigated to determine the real-time remaining useful life (RUL) of critical systems in the automobile spare parts manufacturing plant in the southern region of Tamil Nadu, India.

Effects of individual factors and labor organization on neck pain in auto assembler

Objective: To investigate the influence of individual factors and labor organization on the prevalence of neck pain (hereinafter referred to as neck pain) in automotive assemblers, and to provide a basis for enterprises to optimize neck pain interventions. Methods: A cluster random sampling method was taken in January 2021, at an automobile manufacturing plant in Shiyan, 656 assemblers with ≥1.0 years of service were selected, the "Musculoskeletal Disorder Questionnaire" was used to investigate the incidence and influencing factors of neck pain. Pearson χ(2) test or trend χ(2) test was used to compare the data rates. The influencing factors of neck pain were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression. Results: The prevalence rate of neck pain (hereinafter referred to as the prevalence rate of neck pain) of automobile assemblers within one year was 53.94% (342/634) . The prevalence of neck pain in women was higher than that in men (69.1% vs 48.6%, P<0.01) . The prevalence of neck pain was related to length of service, self-assessment of fatigue, working hours per week, working in the same workshop, rest days per shift, and accumulated rest time per shift (P<0.05) . Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of neck pain in women was 2.434 times higher than that in men; The risk of neck pain increased by 18.9% for each hour of work per week; Rest during work was a protective factor for neck pain. The number of rest per shift increased and the risk of neck pain decreased (r=0.405, 0.311, 0.302, 95%CI=0.205~0.803, 0.169~0.572, 0.142~0.642, P<0.05) . Conclusion: The annual prevalence of neck pain was higher in automobile assemblers. Enterprises should fully consider the influencing factors such as gender, working hours per week and the number of breaks when arranging production.

Skilled maintenance trades under lean manufacturing: Evidence from the car industry

AbstractThis article explores how skilled maintenance trades have fared under lean automotive manufacturing, a cohort of workers relatively neglected in the literature. Historically, such trades possessed a distinct ‘craft consciousness’ derived from apprenticed‐acquired skill, autonomy in job execution, strict job boundaries and relative occupational status and prestige. The article assesses how lean has impacted this craft tradition over time, drawing on a case study of one UK car plant to assess its trajectory across three decades. Four different skilled cohorts—electrical, mechanical, control engineers and die maintenance fitters—are examined to gauge respective trends in skill, autonomy, demarcation and status. While the study finds variation in experiences across different trades, the general trend points to a deterioration in work conditions on all four benchmarks of assessment. The article concludes by inferring implications for the future trajectory of skilled trades considering recent accounts provided in Industry 4.0 narratives.

Opportunities for cooperation and the use of China's experience in automotive industry in current Russian conditions

The current economic situation in Russia is characterized by significant instability due to the large sanctions burden provided by the countries of Europe and the United States because of the special military operation in Ukraine. In the emerging conditions, which caused an increase in inflation, currency volatility, the closure of a large number of companies in various market segments, and, consequently, unemployment, almost all economic activity has become very difficult. Thus, domestic automobile production was also affected. One of the latest measures aimed at destabilizing the Russian automotive industry within the framework of the next package of sanctions in March 2022 was a partial ban on the supply of high-tech products to the country and support for the IT-infrastructure of enterprises. Because of the withdrawal of foreign companies from the Russian market, production facilities such as: Volvo Cars, Jaguar, Land Rover, General Motors, Mitsubishi and others has stopped. The number of Russian car dealers by May has decreased significantly compared to the beginning of the year. Thus, about 70 dealer contracts were terminated. One of the largest car plants in Russia Avtovaz has already stopped its operation several times, and soon the French car concern Renault is going to transfer its share to the Central Automobile Research Institute FGUP NAMI with a buy-out option in 56 years and the production of most models of Renault will be stopped. The situation is also complicated by the already existing crisis in the industry due to the global shortage of semiconductors and other automotive components and newly emerged problems with logistics. There is an obvious need to conclude new deals, find new markets for purchasing raw materials and materials, intensify cooperation with friendly countries and use their experience, which can be done on the basis of uniting Russian clusters and foreign technological platforms, namely the TP of China is being considered.