Quote:
Originally Posted by LONGHAIR
I really can't....
But I will say that I have seen some of the assembly line processes in real time during a tour. My machine shop class went down the line watching Mustangs and Capris in '79. I'm sure that it is considerably different than today. Far less computer/wiring/sensors etc. were used back then. What really stunned me though was a the end of the line. When they were about to roll off, away from the line pulling them along, a worker would get in, start it up and drive it to an alignment rack were they would check the specs and aim the headlights. There were 3 or 4 of these racks to keep things rolling along. There was also a trouble shooting station for the ones that would not start. The shocking thing was that they had one not start while we were there..... You know what they did? Push start it with the one coming from behind. It so happens that this one started, so they just drove it to the alignment rack like it was nothing?
I could not believe that they did that, knowing that we were there....Doing it on a regular basis is bad enough, but with a tour group watching?
The following year we went to see Camaros and Firebirds, not hugely different, but no fail to starts.
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Interesting.
We had a similar process, in terms of vehicle start, alignment racks and short line repairs. But - we had a little "mule" that we used to push "deadheads" off the end of the line - not the vehicle behind them.
"No starts" are a big deal from a management perspective, because they affect the "direct run rate" numbers by which the plant management is judged. We (engineering) get severely chastised when we are building pre production units and they fail to start (even when it is not our fault).
The other thing I had hoped to convey, in a somewhat humorous way, was what a foul environment it was. I was a 19 year old kid, boss over 38 hourly employees, some of whom were old enough to be my grandfather and some of whom were only a few years older than me. It was like being in the army. Fortunately, this was the beginning of the end of the rough & tumble "bull of the woods" style of management and I like to think I was on the leading edge of ushering in more fair and humane treatment of the hourly workers.
K