C8 Production Questions

[nKuch]

Wanted to ask a bunch of questions I had in mind in regards to the C8 production timeline.

Firstly, when do workers go back to the bowling green plant from their holiday break? Subsequently, when will the first round of C8's go down the production line?

Lastly, how long will it take for GM to build a C8 from scratch at the assembly line?

Cheers!

 

[C8Jake]

rtw Jan 2nd
2 shifts/6 days > 11.6 per hr
±3 days > frame, paint, tcf

 

[nKuch]

Thanks Liz, exactly what I was looking for!

And wow, only plus or minus 3 days for the car to be build from scratch? That's pretty impressive, grats on the March TPW btw!

 

[Cruzin]

I would assume that the second shift workers are as dedicated as the first shift workers and were given sufficient time to learn their jobs properly?

 

[AxeZ06]

I would assume that the second shift workers are as dedicated as the first shift workers and were given sufficient time to learn their jobs properly?

Shifts change. We worked days 2 weeks in a row, then night shift for 2 weeks in a row. Rince & repeat.
To learn an auto assembly job, it takes takes roughly 4-5 units. It's not rocket science.
As a consumer, you need to be more concerned about the mass produced parts going into your car, and not about who, or how they get there..

 

[kerry4]

Many years ago someone, with a lot of time on their hands did a study on a car. I forget what car it was back then but they priced out every part on the car if you had to buy it from a parts department. I don't remember what the final total was but it would blow your mind.

 

[Keith Tedford]

When I retired from the Oshawa truck plant tool room in 2006, they were turning out, on average, 1335 trucks a day. That included crew cab, duallies, and 4X4s. An engineer told me that the average profit at that time was $12,000 per vehicle. You do the math. It still wasn't good enough and the plant was closed in 2009. Oshawa, cars and trucks, was consistently on the top of the corporate audits. All gone now. Every time a new Corvette model comes out, they play the same old cat and mouse game of scarcity and you might not get one. I've watched the games played for a long time and became more than a little cynical in the process.

 

[Bucketoy]

I would assume that the second shift workers are as dedicated as the first shift workers and were given sufficient time to learn their jobs properly?

Being a unionized shop, I would imagine there would be a mix of new and experienced workers on each shift. Probably gives the higher seniority worker a chance to move into a preferred job on the other shift. Most likely a lot of quality checks and balances in the system as well, including a healthy level of competition between the two shifts now. And the repetition is not as bad as it use to be. The newer manufacturing systems should eventually allow everyone to learn and rotate among multiple jobs throughout the day. I don’t think we have anything to worry about. There is a lot of satisfaction in building the best!

 

[kerry4]

Being a unionized shop, I would imagine there would be a mix of new and experienced workers on each shift. Probably gives the higher seniority worker a chance to move into a preferred job on the other shift. Most likely a lot of quality checks and balances in the system as well, including a healthy level of competition between the two shifts now. And the repetition is not as bad as it use to be. The newer manufacturing systems should eventually allow everyone to learn and rotate among multiple jobs throughout the day. I don’t think we have anything to worry about. There is a lot of satisfaction in building the best!

I hope their "unionized shop" is better than the one I worked at. We had rotating shifts too and before the previous shift was done they would change all the settings on the machines just to screw up the next shift. Would take hours for the next shift to get things running smooth again. That was our competition to see who got the most out. Sabotage was the rule of thumb. In the end its the customer that suffers for it.

 

[Nik]

Assembling a C8 isn't rocket science.

that's a fact...repetition, day in/day out

I will not change someone's post in a quote I swear guv....

Changing the text you quoted is generally not good etiquette. Let's be nice to each other on a Monday.

 

[OttawaKev]

I hope their "unionized shop" is better than the one I worked at. We had rotating shifts too and before the previous shift was done they would change all the settings on the machines just to screw up the next shift. Would take hours for the next shift to get things running smooth again. That was our competition to see who got the most out. Sabotage was the rule of thumb. In the end its the customer that suffers for it.

That's just a F*&^ed up thing to do to the shift coming in as well it hurts the company as they are not at their wanted production and well I think in that kind of environment everyone suffers.

 

[kerry4]

That's just a F*&^ed up thing to do to the shift coming in as well it hurts the company as they are not at their wanted production and well I think in that kind of environment everyone suffers.

I agree. Probably a lot of that goes on at most places involving shifts.

 

[Cruzin]

There are also grudges going on from one shift to another, if someone doesn't like a repairman or a foreman they will send defective jobs down the line to make him work more. That said, I am sure both shifts will want to put out a quality product as it is a new vehicle they are building and want a good reputation.