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James E. Harbour is a recognized automotive industry analyst. Early in his career, he worked in the automotive industry as a manager and director in the engineering and financial disciplines at Ford Motor Company and Chrysler Corporation. In 1980, he formed Harbour and Associates, Inc., a consulting firm designed to assist manufacturing companies improve their overall competitiveness. The firm dedicated itself to helping manufacturers develop a strategic focus where the design, product, and manufacturing engineering functions focused on continuous improvement of product quality and efficiency. The firm worked directly with automotive companies throughout the world and expanded its scope to assist companies in industries such as pharmaceuticals, consumer products, electrical components, furniture, and paper products as they study and apply improvement methods.

Harbour and his team created the first Harbour Report, a study of manufacturing performance at original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in 1980. The report was updated in 1989 and became an annual publication in 1993. The Harbour Report has driven improvements in manufacturing performance for the OEMs over the past three decades. Recognized throughout the automotive industry, the report is read by thousands of automotive OEMs, suppliers, financial analysts, and media each year.

In 2009, he released his autobiography, Factory Man: How Jim Harbour discovered Toyota's quality and productivity methods and helped the U.S. auto industry get competitive, written with James V. Higgins and published by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).