Auto parts supplier SL America will add 300 jobs in a $35 million expansion at its SL Tennessee LLC plant in Clinton.
The $35 million will also add an additional 100,000 square feet to the company’s existing facility by the end of 2010.
Gov. Phil Bredesen and Tennessee Economic Development Director Matt Kisber announced the new jobs Friday morning, with officials of SL America.
“SL Tennessee’s expansion is a testament to the strong business climate we’ve worked hard to create,” Gov. Bredesen said. “I want to thank SL Tennessee for the confidence they have shown in Tennessee workers and in our state and I congratulate the company’s leadership on the expansion in Clinton.”
“In Tennessee, we’ve developed a strategy in many business sectors which focuses not just on major ‘anchors,’ but on suppliers and customers across the value chain,” Kisber said. “I’m pleased our efforts, along with the strong partnership between the state, Anderson County and the city of Clinton, have yielded results.”
SL Tennessee is a parts supplier for Volkswagen, General Motors, Hyundai and KMG.
The current facility operates in a 164,000 square foot space in the Interstate 75 Industrial Park, building automotive parts including gear shifters, parking brakes and lighting products.
In 2001, SL Tennessee became the first Korean-owned automobile parts manufacturer in the Volunteer State when the Clinton facility opened.
The announcement follows Volkswagen’s decision to award SL Tennessee a contract to make automatic shifter assemblies for the new VW plant at Chattanooga and to supply VW production in Mexico.
One of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Tiger is associated with the earthly branch symbol 寅.
People born within 14 February 2010 – 2 February 2011 date ranges can be said to have been born in the “Year Of The Tiger,” while also bearing the following elemental sign: Metal Tiger. Metal (Chinese: 金; pinyin: jīn), is the decline of the matter, or the matter’s decline stage.
born within : elemental sign
8 February 1902 – 28 January 1903: Water Tiger26 January 1914 – 13 February 1915: Wood Tiger
13 February 1926 – 1 February 1927: Fire Tiger
31 January 1938 – 18 February 1939: Earth Tiger
17 February 1950 – 5 February 1951: Metal Tiger
5 February 1962 – 24 January 1963: Water Tiger
23 January 1974 – 10 February 1975: Wood Tiger
9 February 1986 – 28 January 1987: Fire Tiger
28 January 1998 – 15 February 1999: Earth Tiger
14 February 2010 – 2 February 2011: Metal Tiger
The qualities associated with Metal Tiger are unyieldingness, rigidity, persistence, strength and determination. The metal person is controlling, ambitious, forceful and set in their ways as metal is very strong; and they are self-reliant and prefer to handle their problems alone. The metal person is also materialistic, business oriented and good at organization and stability. However the metal person can also appreciate luxury and enjoy the good things in life. Just as metal can conduct electricity, the Metal person has strong impulses and generative powers and can bring about changes and transformations for those who come into contact with them. Metal is believed to govern the lungs, nose and skin. The negative emotion associated with metal is grief, while the positive emotion is courage.
Metal is yin in character, its motion is inwards and its energy is contracting. It is associated with the west and autumn, old age, the planet Venus and the color white. The archetypal metals are silver and gold. Its Primal Spirit is represented by a White Tiger.
Metal is the fourth phase of Wu Xing (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: wǔxíng), or the Five Movements, Five Phases or Five Steps/Stages, are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device, in many traditional Chinese fields.
It is sometimes translated as Five Elements, but the Wu Xing are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device, hence the preferred translation of “movements”, “phases” or “steps” over “elements”.
The system of five phases was used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. It was employed as a device in many fields of early Chinese thought, including seemingly disparate fields such as geomancy or Feng shui, astrology, traditional Chinese medicine, music, military strategy and martial arts.
The Five Elements system is still used as a reference in some forms of complementary and alternative medicine and martial arts. Some claim the original foundations of these are the concept of the Five Cardinal Points.
The Chinese zodiac is a twelve-year cycle in which each year is associated with a specific animal. Those born during the year of a certain animal were thought to share some of the qualities of that animal. The twelve animals in order are, and their years:
Today brought a pretty cool TTM fram orioles star, Adam Jones! I saw on SCN that someone got his auto quickly by sending to some atheletes performance institute in Arizona. I wasnt sure if I should try, or If it was too late. I took a shot at it and sent my one and only adam jones card, a topps town, not the greatest for signatures, but an auto is an auto! Mr.Jones got back to me in a quick, 10 days! Heres a pic
I have been busy running through ideas for automated instruments I could use to enrich my performances at open mic nights. One of the main points of interest for me is percussion as it is usually quite over looked at open mic nights apart from the occasional set of bongos. I have been drawing up sketches for a snare drum played using dropping marbles and also for a cassette player hack. The main hurdle for any automated instrument is how will it be sequenced to play itself. Last night I sat down for a while and coded a very very basic sequencer in processing that controlled an Arduino with Firmata installed. There is nothing fancy about the code but I believe this will be a good solid starting point for most of the automated instruments I could ever imagine. There are some images below of the basic setup and a video of the sequencer on the screen and the Arduino carrying out the sequence using LED’s. I am quite happy to publish the source code on request.
This has not been a good time for the automobile industry. While the folks who make and sell cars have not had the misfortune of being a target of choice for terrorist groups, the auto industry has been badly damaged. The once mighty and world dominating American auto companies are no longer titans of the industry. GM, for example, is now a sad little ward of the state thanks to decades of poor decision making.
The plummet of the American companies would seem to have offered foreign companies yet another golden opportunity to increase their already significant lead. However, Toyota stumbled badly recently with the infamous accelerator problem.
While the slumping economy has hurt sales, the damage to the auto companies has been self-inflicted. As noted above,the folks at GM drove the company into the ground. The folks at Toyota built cars with a serious defect and did not handle the problem quite well enough.
From a rational standpoint, this would seem to be a poor time to buy American or buy a Toyota. After all, some of Toyota’s top models are affected and it is hard to say at this point how far the damage t0 the brands and the company will extend.
While the other auto companies might be able to step and grab more territory, it might be the case that consumers will be increasingly wary-and justifiably so. Given that the consumer economy is already rather slow, this could create an even greater slowdown in this aspect of the economy.
It is natural to wonder how such a serious defect was allowed in these vehicles. Part of the problem is that conditions in the real world can create some serious surprises even after equipment has been tested. Another part of the problem is that companies often cut corners and hope that the cut will be good for their bottom line and not turn out to be a disaster.
Handling problems is also problematic. One major concern for companies is, of course, law suits. As such, the company folks do not want to take responsibility too early and they want to act so as to minimize the cost the company. Of course, such steps can be seen as dithering and delaying and this hardly helps with the problem.
Toyota might, like other companies have done, be able to restore its reputation. It might even be able to come out of this situation better than it went into it-but this remains to be seen. In any case, time will tell.
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Automobile insurance is not compulsory in some countries like, South Africa. The Government has introduced a fuel tax to compensate injured in a traffic accident. If you are the responsible vehicle, the allowance is limited to 25 000 R. unlimited otherwise. Damage to vehicles are not supported in this system. Insurance companies may offer insurance liability, theft or fire damage in addition to any accident. Almost all business organizations use cars or other autos for their utilities. There must be at least a cab, whatever its condition may be. There are probabilities that these can end up with an accident, because accidents just dont happen on our fault,it can be of others on the road too. Some organizations rent vehicles and some own their own,but both have the same risk. There are also other problems like maintaining the accounts for gasoline used,repair cost,mileage which are not computed correctly. Most times they are not correct at all. There is a system to establish this auto allowance for proper accounting and the total expenses for a car, as well as for insurance purposes. Corporate Reimbursement Services or CRS Inc takes care of all these. it sets up a Car Allowance which includes all major expenses like reimbursable expenses, driver’s allowances and a lot more They can also take care that drivers are fit to drive a car and qualify them on some special tests.
This Toyota story has really turned into an ongoing soap opera.
At first, Toyota was in corporate cultural denial of the problems going on with the gas pedals getting stuck. Then, the company bungled its response to its customers, and it’s now falling all over itself to apologize. And Toyota is going to start with the repairs to people’s vehicles in the next week or so.
Now, what do you need to know if you’re a Toyota owner?
First thing: you don’t get an appointment – at least under the system they’re using now – until you get a certified letter from Toyota saying they’re ready for you. Toyota dealers are going to burn the midnight oil doing these repairs that – if Toyota is right and a simple shim will fix the problem – will be a pretty quick one. It should take about the same amount of time as an oil change. But it will take mechanics a short while to come up to speed on how to do it. There will be a learning curve. So you actually don’t want to be one of the first people to have your car repaired.
Should you be afraid to drive your Toyota? I remember when Audi went through this thing with sudden acceleration in the 80s. Audi absolutely blew the public response, and people became so afraid they parked their Audis in the garage or the driveway and didn’t drive them. I think that was a direct by-product of how Audi handled the problem.
In this case, Toyota – late in the game – is taking responsibility. And I would have no problem driving a Toyota. I’ve explained how you shift into neutral to stop a Toyota if it goes out of control, and there are several briefings on the Web about that.
Now, there is an oddball opportunity right now. I talked with people in the used car business about this to get a number. And what are known as late-model cars, from the last three model years, have seen a big drop in value. This is a temporary window, but you may save as much as $3,000 right now buying a used Toyota, vs. what that same car might have brought just two weeks ago. There are dealers right now that are even refusing to accept Toyotas in trade because they’re too worried about what the marketplace is going to do to the value of the vehicle after they take it into inventory.
The ultimate point here to me is one that comes up over and over again in politics: it’s never the problem, it’s always the cover-up. And if you look at the Toyota situation, a person or company can build up a good reputation over years and it can be destroyed in an instant. That’s what happened to Toyota in this case and they’re going to have to ask for forgiveness and rebuild their credibility step by step.
Let this be a message to anyone who owns a business. If you mess up, ‘fess up. It’s really that simple.
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