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Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: quehubo who wrote (33308)	7/3/2004 4:06:30 PM
From: profile_14	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 206099

Que, with all due respect, I used to work in manufacturing for Chrysler (pre Daimler) for 6 years. I have worked in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, France, Germany, England, Italy, and Austria while in the automotive industry whether for Chrysler or for Rockwell International. My days started at 5:30 a.m. on the assembly line as a supervisor (foreman) in my first job out of college as an industrial engineer. The amount of time invested in building a vehicle has less to do size than it does with plant technology (automation), part count, and ease of assembly. This is a large part of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) and production engineering. Direct labor hours (as well as indirect labor hours), are decreasing as time goes by. I could give you dissertation on this, but believe me when I tell you that there are less than 20 hours of direct labor required in building virtually every vehicle you see today, with most vehicles, including minivans, requiring 14-18 hours of direct labor. The larger problem affecting the automotive industry in the midwest is its staid mentality and inability to innovate beyond the competition for any significant period of time. The proof of this statement is the continuous and steady aggregate market share erosion of Ford, GM, and DCX. Because the US is not focused on the tool industry, an industry dominated by the Japanese after WWII because the US did not want to work on it due to its unattractiveness, it has inferior manufacturing equipment that does not produce parts with the tight tolerances and high statistical consistency levels that are required to generate a reputable quality nameplate. Hence, American cars do not last like the Japanese. You see, it has nothing to do with gas prices. The "political players," as you call them, don't want to antagonize large voting blocks. However, those voting blocks have consistently gone democratic, so I really don't think it matters anyway at this stage of the game. Since we have an electoral college, the "political players" are paying attention to swing states and Michigan is not one the Republicans think they can grab this year. It was not one state they won in 2000 either. Because we have an electoral college, one can become president without having the plurality of individual votes -- each state does not count the same, and quite frankly, one's vote does not count beyond the threshold required to win the state.