F - Ford - 15.58 - missed in November as stimulated economy continued to subsidize inefficiency.
It won't much longer.
Easy to cut this in half 6-12 months.
This is peak either way
DCX 46.76
GM 48.06 both appealing shorts as well- in order of appearance
Put a hemi in an SUV or family sedan and WOW the neighbors.
They continue to advertise gas guzzlers while Japanese promote fuel economy. Reminiscent of 70's.
Reuters
Ford Lags U.S. Carmakers in Efficiency
Thursday June 10, 3:42 pm ET
By Poornima Gupta
DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - News) has fallen behind other U.S. automakers in North American factory efficiency, when only two years ago it was the leader among Detroit's Big Three, according to a benchmark study released on Thursday.
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All three U.S. automakers, who together have seen their share of the U.S. market drop below 60 percent, remain far behind the top Japanese competitors in plant productivity, according to the annual Harbour Report, prepared by Troy, Mich.-based Harbour Consulting.
The Chrysler arm of DaimlerChrysler AG(NYSE:DCX - News; XETRA:DCXGn.DE - News) speeded up its manufacturing time at its vehicle assembly, engine and stamping plant by 7.8 percent to 37.42 labor hours per unit produced, which moved it past Ford for the first time since the Harbour Report was first published in 1989. Every gain in plant productivity helps the industry cut costs.
Ford also improved productivity by 3.4 percent to 38.60 hours at its North American plants, while General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News) again topped the U.S. automakers. The world's largest automaker's productivity improved by 5.2 percent to 35.20 hours, according to the closely-monitored report.
GM's gain is noteworthy because the company has improved plant efficiency about 25 percent over the last six years, Ron Harbour, president of Harbour Consulting, said in a presentation to the Automotive Press Association.
The annual Harbour Report measures the productivity of North American automotive plants and calculates the number of labor hours needed to assemble vehicles.
Among individual vehicle assembly plants, Nissan Motor Co.'s (Tokyo:7201.T - News) Smyrna, Tennessee facility, which makes the Altima sedan, ranked number one with a new record time of 15.33 hours per vehicle. Second was GM's Oshawa, Ontario, plant, which makes the Chevrolet Impala and Chevy Monte Carlo. Smyrna broke its own mark of 15.74 hours set last year.
Nissan's efficient plants are part of the reason the automaker earned $2,402 per vehicle sold in North America last year. In comparison, GM makes only $178 per vehicle, while Ford loses $48 per vehicle and Chrysler makes a loss of $496, the report said.
Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. (Tokyo:7203.T - News) and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:7267.T - News) improved plant productivity last year, rebounding from a drop in 2002, the study said.
The challenge for the top Japanese automakers is "maintaining their very good operations as they continue to grow," Harbor said.
The Harbour study did not give overall rankings for Toyota, Honda and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:7201.T - News) because they did not provide information about all their North American plants. |
