All too often, automaking's most difficult and costly step — manufacturing — is overlooked when the subject of innovation arises. Nothing could be more unjust. The progress of manufacturing is arguably the industry's most stunning showcase for advancement. We have already become familiar with such things as robotics, laser measurement, effective teaming among the technicians who assemble cars and constant improvements in quality control. Some examples of current innovations in manufacturing are, however, worthy of note.

Precision Measurement
A major contributor to excellence in quality control is precision measurement and machining. After all, if a part is the wrong size to begin with, how can it possibly fit properly? The answer is, of course, that it can't. The industry has used laser measurement for some time now, but improvements in measuring and machining continue to appear.

One of the engines used in the Jeep Grand Cherokee is a 4.7-liter V-8 with aluminum cylinder heads. The precision machining system that finishes the heads at Chrysler's new Mack Avenue Engine Plant in Detroit can measure its performance with startling accuracy.

"Our systems can hold tolerances to within 10 microns, approximately one-sixth the width of a human hair, throughout a production run that could well exceed 500,000 engines annually," says Charles E. Wolfbauer, president of Lamb Technicon Machining Systems, which provided the system to Chrysler. The consumer benefit: precision and repeatability that ensures superior emissions performance, reliability and fuel efficiency from every engine sold.

New Materials
From carbon-fiber to ever-evolving forms of plastic, automakers continue to seek weight reduction that doesn't sacrifice functionality. Audi's A8 luxury sedan is all aluminum, and Ford has shown an aluminum Taurus. Though this lightweight metal has been around for many years, it is now achieving wider use.

Advancements continue in the application of one of the oldest materials used in the manufacture of vehicles: steel. The auto and steel industries have developed thinner, lighter-weight steel that does not sacrifice strength. Steel remains a useful, economical material whose potential has by no means been completely realized.

Mitsubishi has developed a strong, lightweight compound material that is 25% lighter than fiberglass. This compound is already in use in the roof-rack rails and brackets on the company's newly introduced Pajero sport-utility vehicle.

Magnesium, another lightweight metal, may also see increased applications. Once avoided because it is a highly combustible substance, magnesium alloys will likely be used in such locations as seat frames and dashboards (as braces), where the material is not exposed. These safer magnesium alloys could also replace aluminum in transmission housings and engine blocks.

The appearance of more and more new materials in production vehicles reflects the determination of automakers to develop and utilize them in the assembly of new vehicles, rarely an easy task.

Fighting the Weight Battle
Lighter cars use less fuel than heavier cars and require fewer amounts of raw materials such as steel. Slightly less than one-third of fuel consumption is dependent on a car's weight, yet the weight of the average car has risen more than 200 pounds in the last decade. Thus the need for lightweight materials.

About half of the weight increase is due to new safety devices (air bags, side-impact girders and related systems). Emission-control equipment added 20 pounds, and creature comforts added in response to consumer demand stacked on another 80 pounds.

Because a vehicle's body represents between 20% and 30% of the total weight, it's easy to see why aluminum — which could reduce a full-size car's weight by as much as 300 pounds — might make sense, once manufacturing operations are adapted to its use. A weight loss of that magnitude could allow a V-6 engine to provide the same or nearly the same performance as a V-8 because less weight requires less horsepower. This is the reason that we will likely see aluminium used in more and more engine-building applications.

As for extracting more power from V-6 engines, the modern application of an established power-enhancing device called a supercharger deserves mention. The 1999 Buick Park Avenue Ultra's 3800 Series II engine (a 3.8-liter V-6) is equipped with a supercharger, which increases the volume of air in the engine's six cylinders and makes the combustion cycle more efficient. More efficiency translates into higher horsepower — 240 for the supercharged engine and 205 for the normally aspirated 3800 V-6 — and, in the case of the Park Avenue Ultra, permits a V-6-powered luxury car to deliver performance that most drivers would associate with a larger engine.

Building a Plastic Car
Chrysler and its suppliers have developed a processing technology that could revolutionize the way the company makes cars and trucks, provided there are solutions to the remaining issues. The Composite Concept Vehicle (CCV) is an automotive application of injection-molding technology that uses the same material found in plastic drink bottles. "Before now, you could have a lightweight car made of expensive, exotic materials or you could have an affordable car, but you could not have both," says an engineering executive at Chrysler. In addition to the innovations in processing, the CCV may represent the first modern vehicle ever designed specifically for the emerging markets of the world. Introduced earlier this year, the CCV is a 50-mile-per-gallon, nearly 100%-recyclable sedan. It incorporates the durability and extra ground clearance required for most undeveloped roads, and would be competitively priced between a motorcycle and traditional entry-level car or truck. The five-passenger CCV fulfills its design goals of efficiency, affordability and utility by means of its easy-to-assemble, manufacturing-driven design and what may be the industry's most advanced form of thermoplastic-injection molding.

This manufacturing-driven approach for fast and easy assembly resulted in a number of innovations: The number of pieces required to produce the vehicle was cut by 75%, to about 1,100. The body consists of only four large composite sections that are fit and bonded together. And it is the first all-injection molded car where the only use of steel is in the frame chassis.

Mercedes-Benz's Smart car, about to go on sale in Germany, seats two and has interchangeable plastic body panels that permit an entire new exterior to be installed in less than one hour. The body is scratch-resistant and lightweight. The merger of Daimler-Benz (Mercedes-Benz's parent) and Chrysler, and the interest of both companies in plastic materials for automaking, could speed the growth of plastics use in the United States.