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Re: Loose Door Stop Torx Screws Posted by Randy Thatcher [Email] (#22) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Randy Thatcher) on Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:28:24 In Reply to: Re: Loose Door Stop Torx Screws, Steve T,, Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:32:38 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
This is amazing.
I hear stories from the plant closest to me - NUMMI. They were a GM plant in the 60's, then they shut down in the early 80's. Less than 2 years later they went into a Joint Venture with Toyota. This is Toyota's first major plant in the US. GM owns the land, it's run the "Toyota Way". Some of the old timers worked in the GM plant, or in another plant a bit away. I forget if that was GM or Ford. They tell stories of finding 30 year old parts hiding in the dark corners of places, people putting empty coke cans in door panels and behind dashboards after breaks, etc. They could smoke in the plant. I can't fathom those days. Maybe the Big 3 were selling so well they could do just about anything and their products would sell.
My experience has been Toyota in all the North American plants including Mexico, Japan HQ and a few plants, 2 China plants, South Africa, and a little in Europe. I've also worked in BMW USA, Mercedes USA, and Mercedes in Germany. In 11 years doing systems/project mgmt/consulting in automotive, the only Big 3 plant I've visited is Shanghai GM. I'm sure it's very different from a US plant. I've also visited a number of other plants in China, and they range from downright scary to pretty decent.
If I ever do a euro delivery on a SAAB I want to plan well in advance to get a "special" tour. I'll bring my lint-free paint suit and other PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) if they'd let me. I'd even be happy to sit down with their engineers for a day or so, too. In addition to curiosity, of course I'd have my sales hat on. :) Who do I talk to about this???
If Trollhatten is truly under the GM standards, they'd follow "CCRW" among others. That's a new-ish internal GM plant standard for making cars. I'm just not sure how much they retrofit, or what happened when they did their last round of big capital projects. Doing a "reskin" on a car doesn't mean all that much has to change in the mfg process itself. They could use 30 year old conveyors and paint systems if they want.
Randy
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