I worked the second shift at the Fremont, CA plant while going to school in the daytime. What an eye opening experience for an 18 year old!

My job was on the repair line fixing all the screw ups on the line, and did we get some doozy's! One side of the car was a Chevy, the other side a Pontiac or a/c on the engine side and no a/c on the dash side.

What was also fun was driving the cars from the roll test area out to the hump yard for loading onto rail cars. Plenty of the muscle cars got a good break in run!

If an employees new car or some other special persons car was coming down the line, it was identified and got kid glove treatment.

 

Agree 100%
"Well Said"
i worked at Linden, NJ 1968-69 was 18 years old

..................................... tom

 

I think it's awesome to hear from the guys that actually worked on the assembly lines. If you guys worked there back in 68-69 you guys are old...Just kidding, i'm right behind you, hence the 1957.

 

............................... tom

 

The responsibility for the demise of US car production falls on BOTH corporate management AND labor unions. The execs of BOTH organizations were out for themselves and there was little thought given to the product or the needs of the customer. As far as any of them thought, their 'customers' were internal to GM.

And, turning over the reins of a product producing corporation to Financial 'leaders', who knew or cared nothing about product/customers, but only focused on MONEY was the 'kiss of death'. This country is still being ravaged from 'management by the almighty dollar'. Making a profit is important to remain solvent; selling off your assets and falsely labeling that money as "profit" so the execs can reap big bonuses is selling-out your employees and the country and is nothing short of criminal. The results are apparent.

 

The big three also would not listen to Mr. Deming about improving quality control. So he took his ideas to Japan, they did listen to him and the rest is history. Lou.

 

Actually, the U.S. military sent Dr. Deming over to Japan to help them restart manufacturing again, after WWII. He taught them how to use knowledge of process variation to understand and then control processes to achieve quality without defects!

The greatest prize in Japanese manufacturing is the Deming Award. After getting them going, he came back to the US and tried to convince US manufacturers to do the same. They were too imbedded in making parts as fast as they could (including some significant amount of junk) then inspecting product to weed that junk out. Very wasteful. But, US mfgrs were fat and happy and couldn't be bothered...until the Japanese cars made them eat their own lunch. Everybody complained about the Japanese product being "unfair". Actually, the US makers were arrogant...and "stupid".

In the late 1980's-early 90's, GM hired an aging Deming in an attempt to finally learn what they should have 40 years earlier. Deming was a brilliant man...but a poor communicator and he never was able to get upper management to understand. Anyway, GM upper management at the time was driven ONLY by finances; so it never could have worked out anyway.

The only surprise I got from GM's bankruptcy was that it happened about 20 years later than I thought it would. Massive corporations are like ocean liners coming into port, still with some speed: they have a lot more inertia than you give them credit for. Even though the engines are off and the boilers are down, it still takes a long time for them to come to a halt--even if they have gone aground!