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

[danny_galaga]

Just finished reading this book. In a word- Poignant.

From someone he interviews:

"So, I'm on the fourth floor, inventorying this equipment, and I hear this errerrerr- strange noise. So I walk to the stairwell and go down to the first floor, and, I swear to God, there, on the first floor, is a guy buffing the floor. Of a building that's going to be torn down next month. The only two people in the building are him and me. And I stopped him and said 'What are you doing? This building's going to be torn down in a month.' And he said, 'Really? I wondered.'"

Paul Clemens was born and raised in Detroit. Seeing empty factories there is so common people don't even notice. One day he thought about what happens after a plant closes down. He tracks down the Budd automotive plant, which had been operating since the 1920's or so. It was Budd who invented the all-steel car body, and then also steel wheels. This was a huge plant. 86 acres of land. 2 million square feet of buildings. They made body parts for Ford, Chrysler, GM. They all but designed and built the first Ford Thunderbird.

Paul spends a year or so with the crew tasked with dismantling and scrapping the presses. The presses weigh hundreds of tonnes and need to be skillfully dismantled because they have been sold to factories in Mexico and Brazil.

He puts names to the end days of this plant. It's not a political book, but a sad look at the way things are going. I'm not in a related industry, but as a postman, I see parallels in the slow demise of my own workplace.

Well worth a read (",)

[Mikezilla]

Stuff like that bums me out so I try to avoid it. 

[mpm32]

I always said when the US stops making stuff we're going to be in a world of trouble - and here we are...

[Dartful Dodger]

Stuff like that bums me out so I try to avoid it. 

Why bother reading a story that could eventually be the story I'm living.

[ed12]

sad indeed,to bad we allowed our gov's to sell us out
shame on them,shame on us

ed

[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]

I always said when the US stops making stuff we're going to be in a world of trouble - and here we are...

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

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.

[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?

[danny_galaga]

Fordman-

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

The Budd Plant made Ford Explorer stampings...