Quote:
Originally Posted by 57taskforce
I’m not sure honesty how many came off the line in an average day. I wonder if Keith Seymour could help there?
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It's hard to say, because it varied based on basic line rate, number of production shifts, overtime (both scheduled and extemporaneous* per day, and number of days per week), line stoppages due to mechanical breakdowns or union activity (aka, strikes), etc.
You'd have to know the specifics surrounding the timeframe you are studying - or - feed the information back in based on an activity like you are constructing here.
Basically - Flint (Line 1) and Fremont were your high volume plants, typically around 60 jobs per hour. St Louis and the other plants were typically a little slower, like 45 jph; Flint Line 2 was normally around 36 jph. Fremont passenger car side (and Pontiac Motor Division, passenger cars) could be as high as 70 jph and three production shifts - but trucks would not run three shifts as far as I know.
So - on the low end, at 60 per hour, you might have 60 jph x 8 hours = 480 trucks per day for one production shift. More typical might be 60 jph x 8 x 2 = 960 for two production shifts. Wide open throttle would be 60 x 10 x 2 = 1200 units for two 10 hour production shifts.
Similarly - at St Louis, you might have 45 jph x 8 = 360 trucks per day for one 8 hour shift; 45 x 8 x 2 = 720 per day for two 8 hour shifts; wide open would be 45 x 10 x 2 = 900 for two 10 hour shifts.
*scheduled overtime is just that: you know going in your are going to be working 9 hours, or 10 hours (ish). On the other hand, you might be scheduled to work 8 hours but, if you've had a particularly bad day due to repair or mechanical breakdowns, plant management might make the call to run a bit longer in order to recover some of that lost production. The production office would dictate the new hours (ie, 8.2, or 8.5 hours) and the new stop time would be communicated up and down the assembly line, both officially by phone but also more rapidly via the rumor mill.
And - it varies based on location within the assembly plant. So while final line might go 8.2 hours, body shop/paint might go 8.5 or 9 hours in order to fill all the buffers.
The goal is to always keep the final line running. Feeder lines and upstream activities can stop for a while as long as there is enough product in the buffers to keep the final line going. If the final line stops - that's when you are going to see some excitement.