The Rover Group - Company and Cars is a comprehensive history of the company and a guide to its products. Centring on the period of the official existence of the Rover Group, the book also examines the events leading up to its formation in 1986 and its controversial aftermath, following its dismemberment in 2000. The book is backed by first-hand accounts from Rover employees, as well as a foreword by Jon Moulton, the man behind several bids to acquire elements of the company. Including production histories and full specification guides to its cars, The Rover Group is a compelling insider's account of one of the most controversial periods in the British motor industry. The book covers: the beginnings of Rover and its place in British Leyland; Land Rover's expansion in the 1980s and how it led to the foundation of the Rover Group; Rover under British Aerospace and the sell-off to BMW; Rover's struggle under German management and BMW's disposal of the Group and finally, the aftermath of Rover's collapse - MG Rover, Land Rover and MINI. Fully illustrated with 270 historical and original colour photographs.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The target of this case study is to present and analyse the drastic false estimations made by BMW in planning and realising the Rover transition as well as its consequences. The worked out mistakes should be generalized in order to give opportunities of their avoidance for future M&A cases. After working out the M&A basics in the 1st chapter, the 2nd chapter deals with the reasons of BMW Management to buy another international manufacturer and gives a clue why the choice fell just on Rover. It opens with an overview of the economic development during the 6 years time period of the Rover takeover. After this, the economic and political environment is shown, also the market situation in the automobile segment in the year of the takeover, followed by the business course and goals of BMW as well as their alternatives. This chapter closes with the strategy and enterprise philosophy of BMW and with a list of the of the Rover Group s assets in 1994. In the 3rd and 4th chapters of this case study the mistakes of the BMW management attempting to integrate Rover into the BMW portfolio are shown and analysed, as well as its consequences for BMW and Rover. The 5th chapter will end with the conclusion, why the Rover takeover went wrong. Zusammenfassung: Ziel der Arbeit ist es, die strategischen Ziele, die Tragweite und die möglichen Folgen von M&A-Transaktionen in den Bereichen Finanzen (Investitionen und operatives Geschäft), Unternehmensführung- und Organisation sowie der Unternehmenskultur anhand dieses Unternehmenskaufes zu untersuchen. Dazu wurde die Arbeit in 6 Teile untergliedert. Im 1. Teil werden die allgemeinen M&A-Grundlagen beleuchtet, insbesondere die Ziele, Erscheinungsformen, rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen als auch die Vor- und Nachteile von M&A-Transaktionen. Im 2. Teil wird das Umfeld von BMW im Jahre 1994 analysiert, die strategischen Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten dargestellt und untersucht, warum gerade die britische Rover Group der für BMW geeignete Übernahmekandidat zu sein schien. Im 3. und 4. Teil wird die Transaktion und ihre Folgephasen untersucht und die Gründe für das Scheitern der Übernahme herausgearbeitet. Die Zusammenfassung und kritische Bewertung der dem BMW Vorstand unterlaufenen Entscheidungsfehler bei der Auswahl und Führung von Rover erfolgt im 5. Teil. Die Arbeit schließt ab mit dem 6. Teil, in dem die finanziellen Auswirkungen der Transaktion kommentiert und anhand von 10 Säulen- [...]

In the years since the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and Opportunity first began transmitting images from the surface of Mars, we have become familiar with the harsh, rocky, rusty-red Martian landscape. But those images are much less straightforward than they may seem to a layperson: each one is the result of a complicated set of decisions and processes involving the large team behind the Rovers. With Seeing Like a Rover, Janet Vertesi takes us behind the scenes to reveal the work that goes into creating our knowledge of Mars. Every photograph that the Rovers take, she shows, must be processed, manipulated, and interpreted—and all that comes after team members negotiate with each other about what they should even be taking photographs of in the first place. Vertesi’s account of the inspiringly successful Rover project reveals science in action, a world where digital processing uncovers scientific truths, where images are used to craft consensus, and where team members develop an uncanny intimacy with the sensory apparatus of a robot that is millions of miles away. Ultimately, Vertesi shows, every image taken by the Mars Rovers is not merely a picture of Mars—it’s a portrait of the whole Rover team, as well.

This comprehensive pictorial overview of Rover cars covers 1945-2005 models. It describes and illustrates all the great classic Rovers up to and including the SD1, British Leyland models with Rover badges, the models designed in conjunction with Honda, the later British-designed cars and, finally, the little-known City Rover.

At a time when the manufacturing industry in Britain is coming under increasing focus, "Globalisation & Manufacturing Decline" provides a clear framework for positioning the key drivers and influences on automotive manufacturing in Britain today.

Providing an understanding of what is meant by quality and its unique position in a manufacturing environment to improve competitive business performance, this text defines all the fundamental ingredients required to introduce an improvement in quality. Concise and easy to read, the theory is backed up by numerous industrial experiences, illustrating the practical obstacles when implementing any quality change. Focusing on the essentials of quality (strategies, principles and techniques) designing for quality is also discussed and new techniques for assessing the risks and costs of non-conformance are introduced. The result is an insight to quality engineering that will prove invaluable to engineering students and professionals.

MG Rover went into administration in April 2005 when its proposed deal with a Chinese company (SAIC) collapsed and it did not have sufficient cash to continue trading. The subsequent closure of MG Rover's plant at Longbridge in the West Midlands resulted in the direct loss of almost 6,000 jobs and with potentially serious consequences for the local economy. This NAO report examines the support provided to MG Rover by the DTI and other public bodies before and during the Company's collapse in 2005, and on the effectiveness of plans to deal with and mitigate the consequences of the firm's closure. Amongst the conclusions drawn, the report identifies weaknesses in the DTI's contingency planning and questions the cost-effectiveness of the DTI's loan of £6.5 million designed to sustain the business for a week while the administrators sought to sell the Company as a going concern. The report goes on to make a number of recommendations to improve future decision-making, contingency planning, and the delivery of training and support in the event of a large-scale company failure.

British Leyland Motor Corporation, formed in the wake of the post-war manufacturing boom, brought together almost all the British-owned car and commercial vehicle companies that then existed. At the head of the sixth largest car manufacturer in the world, its management confi dently expected to give the United Kingdom a leading place in the global motor industry. The eventual failure was one of the biggest and most disappointing disasters in British industrial history. Despite this, we can be proud of British Leyland's legacy: successful and much loved vehicles like the Mini and the Range Rover have endured, its working practices had a lasting effect on industrial relations policy, and brands that once formed part of the group continue to thrive in this ever-competitive market. From their unique insider perspective, three former employees of the brand reveal in unprecedented detail the ups and downs of this iconic British company.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The story of the automobile manufacturer production can not be told without the story of Henry Ford, who was one of the pioneers constructing his first horseless carriage in 1896. He incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903, proclaiming I will build a car for the great multitude . As predicted he did so in 1908 offering a Model T for $ 950. This model heralds the beginning of the motor age. The car evolved from a former luxury item for the well-to-do to essential transportation for the ordinary man. Ford also revolutionized automobile manufacturing, in 1914 the Ford plant used innovation production techniques and was able to turn out a complete chassis every 95 minutes. That was a revolution in the automobile manufacturing at the time, because the former production time took about 730 minutes to turn out a complete chassis! Ford achieved that fast production time by using a constantly moving assembly line, subdivision of labor, careful coordination of operations and he began to pay nearly double the wages offered by their competitors. His innovations made him an international celebrity in the industrial revolution and he was one of the first who thought about effective organization to achieve a higher productivity. Ford s methods that changed the automobile production were perhaps not mainly the introduction of the assembly line, his goal was also to constantly standardizing the use of craftsmen. That firstly resulted in a high product variety despite in fact that they had been made using the same drawing. Secondly a lot of time was spent in fitting the parts together. These facts influenced major loss in productivity and under such circumstances a real mass-production was not possible. But by standardizing components and developing work routines was the first scope for an assembly line approach. The target of our case study is to present and analyze the changes in companies organizations, applied to the example of BMW. The opening part will summarize the history of the working and organizing techniques in general. The middle part will focus on the changes in production organization in the automotive industry, followed by the last part analyzing new strategies in Sales & Marketing regarding the rebirth of MINI by the BMW Group. Zusammenfassung: Die vorliegende englischsprachige Projektarbeit behandelt das Thema effektive Reorganisation in Produktion, Vertrieb und Marketing in der Automobilindustrie am [...]

This book considers the concepts of organisational learning and the learning organisation, and critically examines their take up within the context of four contemporary work organisations in the European automotive sector. Within this dynamic environment, the pursuit and implementation of approaches that encourage individuals to learn and challenge existing orthodoxy are now dominant on the management agenda. Changes to processes, structures, cultures and the employment relationship per se.