Reply #14: This is true of all manufacturing

[Indy Lurker]

There have been more manufacturing jobs lost to automation and productivity gains in the last 30 years than to off-shoring.

If you make 100 cars a day and average 4% gain in productivity a year, you get the following:

1 100
2 104
3 108.16
4 112.49
5 116.99
6 121.67
7 126.53
8 131.59
9 136.86
10 142.33
11 148.02
12 153.95
13 160.1
14 166.51
15 173.17
16 180.09
17 187.3
18 194.79
19 202.58
20 210.68



In less than 19 years your making twice as much a day, or you only need half as many workers.

In addition to lower labor costs and younger workers (average age of 26 vs. 46) in Brazil, Ford also avoids dealing with EPA, OSHA, healthcare, and workman's comp.


As far as vertical integration goes in the US, it's a tough sell in the UAW plants because the suppliers are often non-union and paid less than UAW members. As such, to get to the point of suppliers installing chassis parts directly on a chassis (as seen in the video) you would have to displace UAW members with non-union suppliers.

If your going to spend 1.9 Billion on a new plant, you can put it anywhere in the world, and Ford chose Brazil over the US.



from Detroit News

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070822/AUTO01/708220407/0/special


The entire operation, including suppliers, employs about 9,000 workers. The average age is just 26, and nearly half are women.

Most have no industrial experience when they hire on at Camaçari, so each worker receives about 900 hours of training. Much of that time is spent working on a scaled-down version of the real assembly line that was built just for that purpose.

Unlike many U.S. auto plants, where workers' responsibilities are strictly limited to specific job classifications, workers like Silva dos Santos are encouraged to learn as many different skills as possible.

Everyone -- from senior managers, designers and engineers to rank-and-file line workers and maintenance staff -- wears the same uniform here. The only difference is that those working for suppliers have their own corporation's insignia embroidered on their chest instead of Ford's Blue Oval."