The 8th International Automotive Conference 5 & 6 October 2005 Stadium of Light, Sunderland, UK Send me Updates

Day one of the conference proper started with an introduction from the conference chair, Professor Garel Rhys OBE, Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University Business School, an acknowledged industry expert.

Highlights of the first day included a presentation by Yann Vincent, Vice President of Quality at Nissan partners, Renault. Vincent spoke on the expectations of Renault's customers, the massive gains the company has made in quality over the last two years, and the "wide and deep" management and reporting processes that have enabled this. He spoke of the company's goal "to catch up with Toyota" and of the importance of understanding the customer.

Understanding and satisfying customer expectations was a recurring theme at the conference. Nick Xeromeritis, Future Lab and Advanced Projects Manager at Johnson Controls gave a fascinating presentation on making cars for 'the Nintendo generation' - those brought up on immediate response graphics and sensations. He went further, outlining Johnson Controls' Future Lab concept, and how it uses consumer research specialists working with product designers and others to realise consumer profiles and identify developments in tastes and preferences while introducing new concepts to the market. In a 53-page presentation, Xeromeritis showed some exciting concept interiors that took influences from many sources - not all of them conventional automotive systems or products - and talked about multi-sensory environments. He also discussed the next generation of car buyers and the responses that the auto industry might make to interest them.

This year's event also featured sessions on logistics. From 'Counting the cost of logistics' to 'Service parts' and 'Packaging', presentations and panel discussions saw lively debates between OEM logistics managers and logistics service providers.

The role of the OEM was put forward with input from Honda's Ray Runza and BMW's Ralf Hattler, and the supply chain perspective included contributions from Linpac's Rodney Salmon and Patrick Allen of United Co-operatives.

The second day of the conference was divided into technology, purchasing strategies, and the impact of the automobile on the environment.

The morning presentations highlighted materials and structures, with talks from Jon King of Corus Automotive on steel, Daryl Greig of Lotus Engineering on lightweight and composite vehicle structures and Gary Mahon of Innoval Technology on 'Turning Cans into Cars - Aluminium recycling'among others.

The afternoon saw a surprise guest join the Purchasing and Partnerships panel - Gerry Matios, formerly at Ford of Europe Purchasing, now a consultant at Atos Consulting, sat in with David Cameron, General Manager of Purchasing at Nissan Europe for a frank discussion on the changing aspects of the responsibilities of OEMs and suppliers in the supply chain. This session rounded off the event perfectly and, with some excellent input from Professor Rhys, some interesting and hard-hitting topics were fielded by the panel members.

The IAC 2005 featured industry executives from all facets of the automotive arena. With attendees from BMW, Honda, Jaguar and Land Rover, Nissan and Renault to name just a few, this years' event brought a global perspective to the automotive industry.