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What happens when you bring the best of two famous brands together? What sorts of innovations can emerge, and how is a brand image created for the new product? The Smart car came about as a result of a collaboration between car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz and Swatch, the Swiss watch maker. This album examines the innovations behind the Smart car, its supply chain, and its assembly line in Hambach, France, where a finished car is produced every 96 seconds. With its major suppliers situated on the same site, Smart can rapidly assemble a good value customisable car which is both pioneering and appealing. This material forms part of The Open University Course T882 Supply chain innovation, strategy and management.
- Duration 32 minutes
- Updated Saturday 5th December 2009
Track 1: Supply chains: Smart cars
A short introduction to this album
- Read a transcript of this track - you'll need a PDF viewer, such as Adobe's free Adobe Reader
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Tracks in this podcast:
| Track | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Supply chains: Smart cars | A short introduction to this album Play now Supply chains: Smart cars |
| 2 | Smart thinking | Introducing the funky customisable Smart car, the result of a partnership between Mercedes and Swatch watches Play now Smart thinking |
| 3 | Smartville | How the innovations continue at Smart's factory, and how the brand image is built Play now Smartville |
| 4 | Behind the brand | The radical re-thinking of the car assembly process and its supply chain, along with 12 on site component suppliers Play now Behind the brand |
| 5 | Innovating the aftermarket | The servicing and selling of Smart cars to customers is also revolutionised, combining the best of Swatch and Mercedes' brand values Play now Innovating the aftermarket |
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Audio reviews
Interestingly small city cars are in fashion in again in some countries, just as we are beginning to see the all-electric smart product become available in Western Europe. It is currently undergoing trial tests and should, in theory, go into mainstream sales in apoproximately 1.5-2.5 years from today.
It might be ironic that the original vision of the swatchmobile (the forerunner to the current smart car design) was to have no internal combustion engine, as then dictated by the swatch partner/director N. Hayek.
But to date has the smart car system ever made a profit which is comparable to other
small cars?
And can other small cars ever be as iconic as the smart car design? Consider that it has remained virtually unchanged in some ways - rather amazing in terms of a design
artefact.