jeffreymark

FORD GETS POLITICAL

And it's a damn good thing. The add below speaks a ten thousand words.

HIGH GAS PRICES-THE AMERICAN WAY

Bud, you think you got worries over sky high gas prices? Do you believe the oil companies and American capitalism have gone wacko? Think again. Gas prices have always soared. Feller, it's the American way. Just watch this old 1959 commercial. Mr. Tennessee Ernie Ford himself feels your pain.

 

CHRYSLER: CAR OF THE FUTURE

I'm not an economist, but this bit of information may add an angle to comprehending the auto industry's woes. (via Instapundit)

Joe Wiesenthal thinks that Chrysler will now be run well, because the UAW just became responsible for generating the revenue to cover their wages.  I'm skeptical, for multiple reasons:

 We just demonstrated that the penalty to the workers for helping drive the company to the bankruptcy courts is not that high

The above will make it relatively difficult to get capital for operations

The record of worker-run enterprises isn't that exciting--if it were, everyone would do it.  The unions can often still do better by maximizing their personal take rather than enterprise value, which is why German companies don't rule the world, and union-owned airlines showed back up in bankruptcy court.  (Though to be fair, in those cases there is often more than one union competing for rent extraction)

The people who have a seat on the board don't represent the workers; the UAW is dominated by theretirees.  Those people typically have an extraordinarily adversarian attitude towards management, and also, they don't have an interest in maximizing long-run enterprise value.  They have an interest in maximizing their pensions now, and who cares what happens when they die?  This is a core problem with the UAW by-laws, one that is going to be very hard to fix, if it is fixed at all.

FORD HOLDING ITS OWN

Not only has Ford rejected the government bailout, they recently reopened a Cleveland engine plant. I'm not an economist, but it looks as though Ford may have used a little more foresight than GM-Government Motors. 

The Cleveland Engine Plant has been outfitted with a flexible manufacturing system for powertrains, featuring modern machine tools that easily can be retooled and reprogrammed to perform new tasks with minimal disruption to production. 

"One of the main benefits of this system is its flexibility," Allman said. "This system allows us to make changes within the plant without disrupting production. This is a complete change from the old way of doing things."

A new, internal database will ensure quality is built into the engine from the outset. During production, each engine built at the plant will have a sophisticated engine "birth history" that allows plant engineers to track every stage of production.

The engine history, maintained in a microchip database, will include hundreds of metrics and allows engineers to trace the precise path taken by any part so any quality control issue can be traced back to its source.
To prepare for production of the EcoBoost engine, the work force participated in an intensive quality training program. Employees learned basic manufacturing operations while gaining knowledge on how to manage their own equipment and work area through "manufacturing work teams" at the plant. 

"This training approach not only delivers the technical training to the work force but also empowers workers," said Kevin Heck, Cleveland Engine No. 1 manufacturing manager. "You're turning over the keys to the hourly team members to let them do what they need to do to get their jobs done. Each employee, working under a team leader, is responsible for his or her area and they work as a team to deliver a high-quality engine."

The final phase of training provides employees an opportunity to upgrade skill sets for machining technicians and production team leaders. The plant, working with Cuyahoga Community College, will provide four weeks of onsite classroom training for this purpose, and each student will receive 10 credit hours toward an associate's degree in Advanced Manufacturing Technology.

"We're working together to keep our site competitive," said Mike Gammella, President, UAW Local 1250. "We have identified and implemented processes and practices to improve quality. The outstanding work force is doing everything it takes to keep the Cleveland site flexible and competitive. "

OBAMA WANTS DOMESTIC AUTO INDUSTRY TO SURVIVE

But Mr. Obama, if when you offer the big three a handout you also dictate the production rules, you'll get an industry that fails to work.  I don't want an electric car. (Via Drudge Report)

GRAND OLD AMERICAN INSTITUTION CONTINUES TO DECLINE

GMC, the once jolly green giant of American corporations, continues to experience massive quarterly losses. John Stoll of the W$J explains why.

TOYOTA'S KEY TO SUCCESS

Word on the street is that Toyota produces the most reliable cars on the market. Today I discovered the key to their success.

A Japanese labor bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string of such findings in a nation where extraordinarily long hours for some employees has long been the norm.

The man who died was aged 45 and had been under severe pressure as the lead engineer in developing a hybrid version of Toyota's blockbuster Camry line, said Mikio Mizuno, the lawyer representing his wife. The man's identity is being withheld at the request of his family, who continue to live in Toyota City where the company is based.

In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month.

In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp. offered its condolences and said it would work to improve monitoring of the health of its workers.

There is an effort in Japan to cut down on deaths from overwork, known as "karoshi." Such deaths have steadily increased since the Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.

Last year, a court in central Japan ordered the government to pay compensation to Hiroko Uchino, the wife of a Toyota employee who collapsed at work and died at age 30 in 2002. She took the case to court after her application to the local labor bureau for compensation was rejected.

SMART CAR

You don't say. A new car that gets 142 miles without a fuel purchase? Big deal. I can go over 200 miles in my Ford F150 5.4L V8 without refueling. And what kind of hippie dippie wants to drive this flower powered car anyway?
(Hat Tip: Instapundit)

EVOLUTION OF A DREAM MACHINE

All you young punks out there who think you own a contemporary muscle car, guess what. Today's muscle cars
are for girlie men. The Corvette stands as the eternal prototypical man's muscle machine. Watch the video below describe the evolution of this mystical dream car.

MOPED FRENZY DECLINING

Fox News reports that the demand for hybrid autos (mopeds in my mind) declined this last year:

Consumer demand for hybrid vehicles is down because shoppers are becoming aware that many models actually are no more efficient than those relying solely on gasoline-powered engines. ABC's Web site reports the average mileage of hybrid vehicles available in the U.S. is 33 miles-per-gallon, but much of that comes from very small cars.

Chevrolet's new Silverado hybrid truck gets only 16 miles-per-gallon and the new Lexis hybrid sedan gets twenty-one. As a result, a new survey by J.D. Power finds only 50 percent of new vehicle shoppers are considering a hybrid, down from 57 percent a year ago.