They usually aren't.
Ford to slash production by 21%
- Thread starter Ray H
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One of the other things I noticed in the article was that the US manufacturers had about 3x as many US employees per car sold, compared to Toyota. Toyota has 3x as many US employees per car sold compared to Hyundai.
I wonder what the figure is for total employees?
Do the Japanese and the Koreans employ fewer employees per car manufactured, compared to GM or Ford.
This is world wide production and employment.
We already know GM, Ford and DC have the load of supporting so many retirees. What about the number of folks simply working at each of these companies, compared to the numbers of cars sold.
I wonder what the figure is for total employees?
Do the Japanese and the Koreans employ fewer employees per car manufactured, compared to GM or Ford.
This is world wide production and employment.
We already know GM, Ford and DC have the load of supporting so many retirees. What about the number of folks simply working at each of these companies, compared to the numbers of cars sold.
Wasn't there a union theme song with words like "little boxes/all in a row/and they're all made/out of ticky-tacky/and they all look/just the same".
I hope the unions are as good for the American auto industry as there were for the UK. They showed the British car makers that they couldn't get away with all those dirty tricks, like making a profit. No sir. Give the money to the workers, they deserve it. They show up for work every shift.
I hope the unions are as good for the American auto industry as there were for the UK. They showed the British car makers that they couldn't get away with all those dirty tricks, like making a profit. No sir. Give the money to the workers, they deserve it. They show up for work every shift.
Well let's not stray to far afield, but gee, you didn't mention the NEA -- now there's a bunch who've done great things for everyone. . .
Obviously, this is a very complex set of issues that don't fit neatly into one-dimensional stereotypes. Let's zoom the picture back a tad. Ford (and GM and Dodge too) spend billions convincing suburbanites to make "bold moves" buying "tough" trucks that 97.5% of the ultimate buyers don't really need. It worked, and a lot of folks made unwise buying decisions, and demand for these products skyrocketed. So they shift production from "less profitable" (but more sensible lines) to build more trucks. Then gas prices skyrocket and the tough truck market implodes. Sure, plenty of silliness all around. But yeah, I think the automakers, in a perhaps fatally short-sighted strategy, helped to create and then exploited, a market that is doomed to collapse when, surprise surprise, gasoline becomes truly expensive.
I don't have a lot of sympathy for the folks who bought guzzlers and now find themselves getting guzzled dry, but I reserve my true contempt for the carmakers. They boxed themselves in with a poor game plan. They made money in the short-term, but left themselves no good way to transition away from these lines when the inevitable happened, and in so doing, left their very survival in question. The concept of defensive driving is understood and accepted by most drivers, why not by those who drive our biggest corporate entities?
Do those figures include contractors? What about out-sourcing?
Gee, I wish I could have been at the meeting where the union bosses had guns to the heads of the Ford execs and threatened to shoot them all if they didn't shift all of Ford's resources into producing F-150s, Excursions, Expeditions, and Explorers. . .
I'll surmise that people who just don't get it WRT to fuel prices are the ones who still have room on the credit cards and HELOCs.
Or, we just live within our means, so paying $3/gallon for gas and driving 40K miles / year is really no big deal.
Well, at least it's not for me
At 30mpg I'm using $4k / year in fuel.
I guess I am using less now, I'm working from home more, and the past year I've taken to splitting an on-site position with another engineer. That way, I take the train to downtown STL two out of every four weeks.
Now that school is back in session, trips to visit oilbabe are reduced from nearly daily to M,W,and F.
I suspect I've taken 4k to 6k of my driving off the table with this move, based on my figures. So I'm probably closer to 35K miles/year now.
But other than my car payment and mortgage, I live debt free. If I don't have the cash to pay off the credit card, I don't buy the item.
Regarding you previous question about contractors and such, I really don't know the answer. I suspect the numbers are similar since both domestic and Japanese manufacturers use suppliers and contractors.
My gut tells me that the Japanese may end up with MORE employees "produced" from these ranks because they don't just expect drastic price cuts. I did read where Toyota did expect price cuts, as the costs of tooling and design were recouped. These cuts were on the order of a 1-2%/year, IIRC.
Here are a couple of interesting articles:
Toyota Supplier Price Cuts
GM Supplier Price Cuts
The tone I take away from both of these articles is that GM just expects a supplier to supply a part and meet the price target, period.
Toyota works hand in hand with suppliers, in more of a team effort.
True or not, this perception is what the suppliers have. Notice that in the MEMA article, 36% of Toyota suppliers VOLUNTARILY offered low prices out of loyalty to Toyota, not because they felt pressured. Only 1% of GM suppliers did the same.
Two thirds of the surveyed GM suppliers feared losing the business, so they cut prices, compared to 5% of the surveyed Toyota suppliers.
You can't blame labor on this issue. It appears GM has little good will with suppliers and labor. Combine that with slumping sales, and the ever growing retirement and healthcare expenses and you have a recipie for trouble.
Would you want to pay the extra $4k/year, as it would cost you to drive an Excursion around for those 40K miles? (It gets 15MPG, give or take a little). I don't think most people would, and this is one, perhaps the main, reason why Ford is having trouble now.
I don't blame labor for management problems.
I don't blame labor for management problems.
If I already owned the Excursion, sure I'd keep driving it.
But I doubt I'd buy a new one for 40K/year worth of driving.
I might own one to drive 10-15k miles/year for vacations, towing, and such, and keep my Prizm for the daily commute.
I really have considered a full sized conversion van (used, these things are horrible buys new) to take the kid, oilbabe and her kids and perhaps a boat in tow for weekends away.
But yeah, I'm not buying any of this stuff brand new. Not the conversion van and not the boat.
But I doubt I'd buy a new one for 40K/year worth of driving.
I might own one to drive 10-15k miles/year for vacations, towing, and such, and keep my Prizm for the daily commute.
I really have considered a full sized conversion van (used, these things are horrible buys new) to take the kid, oilbabe and her kids and perhaps a boat in tow for weekends away.
But yeah, I'm not buying any of this stuff brand new. Not the conversion van and not the boat.
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