National Press Release

DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Does anyone care about manufacturing? In "Factory Man," a new autobiography to be published in February 2009 by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), James E. Harbour says it doesn't appear to be the financial community, the White House, or even Congress but rather Japan, Korea and Europe.

Recognized as a leading automotive industry analyst and founder of The Harbour Report, a study of original equipment manufacturers' performance, Harbour has co-authored this factual, non-technical book with James V. Higgins, an award-winning automotive reporter, columnist and editor who covered the industry for most of his career at The Detroit News.

"Factory Man" clearly presents the insights and viewpoints of an automotive "insider" who became an "outsider" and one of the industry's main critics. It is a brutally honest assessment of what was wrong with U.S. automakers from the 1950s into the early 21st century. Harbour states his views very strongly and is a highly opinioned observer of the auto industry. His views are as relevant to the condition of the auto industry today, as they were in 1981 when he issued his first Harbour Report.

Says Steve Miller, chairman, Delphi Corporation, "Jim Harbour offers a clear and compelling analysis of what has gone wrong with American auto manufacturing, and how it can be put right. The frequent human interest anecdotes make it an absorbing non-technical read."

Harbour's work experiences while at Ford Motor Company and at the Chrysler Corporation, takes readers on a personal trip to see how Harbour's discovery and evaluation of the Toyota Production System -- documented in his Harbour Report -- gave impetus to his efforts in pushing Chrysler and the other "Big Three" American auto companies to change their production systems to become more competitive with Japanese car companies.

For entire release:

http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/get-press.pl?&&20080076&PR&&SME&

SOURCE Society of Manufacturing Engineers