U.S. Car Plants Redline

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

More and more U.S, carmakers run their plant 24 hours a day by adding a 3rd shift, reports Bloomberg. U.S. auto plants are estimated to run at 81 percent capacity, up from 49 percent in 2009, IHS Automotive says. In the business, capacity utilization above 80 percent is considered good, anything lower is thought to be an invitation to disaster.

Running three shifts a day also is considered dangerous. Repairs have to be neglected or postponed. Quality sinks. To avoid this, and to adapt output to demand, carmakers devise more flexible solutions. Bloomberg explains:

Rather than running round-the-clock into a full third shift, Chrysler and Ford are adding so-called third crews, which rotate in groups of additional workers during less-busy times of the day and evening and on weekends to allow the plants to operate more hours weekly. Ford will have four plants in Kentucky, Michigan, and Illinois on the three-crew system within the next year, meaning those plants will run about 120 hours out of the 168 possible, instead of the 100 hours for a two-shift run.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Carbiz Carbiz on Feb 10, 2012

    There is a big difference between having a couple of beers, or smoking a joint, on one's lunch break, than getting 'tanked.' Nobody begrudged the 'liquid lunch' executives that once was commonplace (and Mad Men once again glorifies), yet the famous stories of 'drunk' or 'disorderly' union workers still makes the rounds today. And if the law & order crowd weren't making so much damned money off chasing punks who smoke pot, the hippy crowd (now all lawyers and doctors anyway) would have had at least that substance legalized many moons ago. If random drug testing were mandatory in ALL workplaces today, I truly believe the DEA and their sycophants will have to rethink their agenda. There simply isn't enough court space for the millions of recreational users of pot, coke and far worse - all of whom are productive, tax paying members of society. No kidding, a source no less than the Congressional Research Service released a 2006 report. I just gotta quote it, it's too funny: "Some 19 million Americans use illicit drugs at least once per month, spending by most conservative estimates over $60 billion annually in a diverse and fragmented criminal market." Well! My word. There must be a lot of rich 18 year olds out there that can afford that size of a stash, because the good 'ol boys in Washington (and just what habits did J. Edgar Hoover have?) would have us believe the drugs universally destroy lives, families and communities. Anyway, depending on who your whipping boy is, we can blame society's evils on whomever you please. Personally, I find it sad that Detroit companies that are able to run their factories 24/7 makes headline news. I have many theories about that, and it has very little to do with some guy smoking a joint in his car on his break.

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    • Bikegoesbaa Bikegoesbaa on Feb 10, 2012

      @bikegoesbaa Why do you suppose it is that manufacturing workers make more than people in service or retail in the same area with the same education?

  • Pch101 Pch101 on Feb 10, 2012

    "Why do you suppose it is that manufacturing workers make more than people in service or retail in the same area with the same education?" In part, because people who work in manufacturing are more likely to get hurt: http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osh/os/ostb2801.txt

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    • Pch101 Pch101 on Feb 10, 2012
      @bikegoesbaa "do you think there may be anything else contributing?" A lot of construction work is done by folks who have questionable citizenship status. They can only negotiate for so much, as they have plenty of competition and can't invite too much scrutiny. I doubt that an auto plant has too many workers with fake Social Security cards. Those workers are in the same pool as other manufacturing jobs.
  • Mikey Mikey on Feb 10, 2012

    Just a little input from a guy that spent 36+ years on the floor at GM Oshawa. I seen a guy's leg get swallowed up to his knee in a conveyer...not pretty. The maintenance guys, and lots of others used to ride bikes in the plant. I saw an electrician on a bike tangle with a lift truck. He lived,but will never walk. I saw the after effect of a student stick a self tapping screw into her palm.We had to reverse the tool while she screamed. "Hog rings" [the things that hold seat covers to the seat frames} you have to see one of them buried in a workers thumb nail. Yeah a tough looking biker type,reduced to a cold sweat,gives new meaning to factory work. I could write forever...suffice to say "it ain't for the faint of heart" Yeah....for sure I made big bucks, and earned every nickel of it.

    • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Feb 10, 2012

      Although I am opposed to many union practices, it is for the reasons you cite that unions exist - to ensure employers provide a reasonably safe work environment, and compensate appropriately for the hazards involved. Airline pilots can tell equally scary - albeit less graphic - stories of harrowing situations for which they are well-paid, thanks to union protection.

  • Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz on Feb 11, 2012

    What we have here is the end result of the closure of a large number of older plants over the last five years, in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies and the Ford near death experience. I would not see the D3 adding any new plants unless this pace keeps up for another year. The next NA plant openings will probably come from Toyota and Nissan as they attempt to escape their slow motion garroting by the mysteriously high-flying yen.

    • Shaker Shaker on Feb 11, 2012

      And the fact that (at least for now) the USA is "tsunami-resistant".

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