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Punching Out- One Year in a Closing Auto Plant , by Paul Clemens

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danny_galaga:

Unfortunately, this is how it goes. Once people earn over a certain level, it becomes unprofitable to manufacture goods. There's nothing much the government can do if they want to trade with other countries. For instance, putting a tariff on imported vehicles isn't going to help you EXPORT your own.

Lots of Australian manufacturing is getting shipped overseas too. It is depressing to think about. This book though I definitely describe more as poignant than depressing.

Fordman:
I think I'm qualified to reply to this topic since I work for Ford Motor Company in 5 different plants (1 closed). Partial reason for plant closings is because of product that has become outdated (life cycle end) such as the Batavia Transmission Plant  (Batavia, OH-USA). We made 4 speed transmissions that were basically obsolete. We also made a CVT transmission which didnt sell well with the buying public because of the 'no-shifting' when reaching certain speeds. Customers complained since there was no shifting that they were tearing up their transmissions when in fact, no shifting was the design. Ford implemented a simulated shift by reprogramming the valve body but that didnt help. Chrysler and Nissan was going to buy the CVT's from us but when they saw the complaints, they backed away. Nissan went ahead and had Aissin-Warner build the CVT (Murano) for them in mexico but have found out that their customers are complaining as well.

So shuttered plants really have nothing to do with labor cost. Its about design, functionality and value to the customer. It cost no more on a labor standpoint to make a CVT as it does a 6-speed transmission. Actually, the CVT only has 314 parts including every nut, bolt and screw. Shuttered auto plants are usually the victim of economic declines and geographical location. Some companies say that they can make more money if they move the operations to mexico, china or india, but then they learn that their patents mean nothing in those countries (all are shared with the gov, stolen and copied), and they usually have a 63:1/ bad:good parts ratio. Everything that comes into our plant from china gets sorted 4 times, mexico 2 times and india usually gets rejected at the dock.

With our new UAW contract we just signed at Ford, we get 12,000 of those jobs back as they have found out its better to make the parts/cars in the USA!

Fordman

Samstag:

--- Quote from: mpm32 on October 28, 2011, 01:31:00 pm ---I always said when the US stops making stuff we're going to be in a world of trouble - and here we are...

--- End quote ---

We still make more stuff than anyone else, including china: Despite China's might, U.S. factories maintain edge


--- Quote ---Yet America remains by far the No. 1 manufacturing country. It out-produces No. 2 China by more than 40 percent. U.S. manufacturers cranked out nearly $1.7 trillion in goods in 2009, according to the United Nations.
--- End quote ---

yotsuya:
Fordman-

Interesting info, and good to hear. I drive a '99 Explorer that has over 100k miles and is still going strong.

fallacy:
what do you do Fordman?

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