The Global Automotive Industry: Perspective on a Changing Industry, in a Changing World
T. Kathleen Hanley, Chief Administrative Officer, Carpenter Technology Corporation
November 4, 2008 @ 5:30 pm -7:30 pm, LBJ Library, 10th Floor Brown Room
The Strauss Center welcomed Kathleen Hanley, Senior Vice President of Carpenter Technology. Hanley opened up the lecture by describing her work experiences at Toyota and Carpenter. Hanley noted that Carpenter Technology has been in business for 119 years and gained recognition by making armaments for the U.S. Army in the Spanish-American War.
Hanley stated that a major challenge for Carpenter today is a shortage of metallurgies in the world. She described the primary types of metals with which Carpenter works. Carpenter Technology’s sales are primarily in goods used in the aerospace, automotive, and medical industries. Carpenter’s growth area is in products related to energy, particularly devices used for oil exploration and the containment of spent nuclear material.
Offering charts, graphs, and other visual aids, Hanley described market conditions in the aerospace, energy, and medical industries. Hanley then provided an in-depth look at Carpenter’s various manufacturing processes, including the innovative premium melting technique that utilizes vacuum induction to induce melting.
Looking to the future of Carpenter Technology, Hanley laid out the company’s strategic priorities, including increased growth, improvement of processes and services to achieve operational excellence, and staking a claim as a leader in technological capabilities.
Hanley then fielded questions from the audience. In response to a question regarding the methods by which Carpenter achieves technological advancement, Hanley noted that although most of Carpenter’s technology is developed in-house, there has been an increased emphasis as of late on acquiring technologies from outside sources. On the global automotive industry, Hanley asserted that high oil prices, global regulations, reduced dependency on fossil fuels, and limited resources all require the development of automobiles that run on alternative sources of energy. Hanley further described how the automotive industry is responding to these conditions, primarily by developing smaller vehicles, reducing rolling resistance, and improving the surface aerodynamics of automobiles. Hanley concluded the discussion by stressing the importance of keeping manufacturing operations within the United States while simultaneously explaining the need for global cooperation in the development of new technology.
The Strauss Center is nonpartisan and takes no institutional position on any issue. All statements of fact and all expressions of opinion at Center events are the sole responsibility of the speaker.
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