General Where do 500 come from?

[elpio]

A bit confused here... My dealer is telling me that my car is at status 30 of production and then will get stuck in Italy ( August holiday) before shipping to UK. I thought 500 were built in Poland... What's Italy got to do with production and delivery?

 

[scout]

As I understand it, the 500 is built in Poland but the factory shuts down for August, as do many European manufacturers. So the dealer could be right but for the wrong reason

 

[beany_bot]

"the 500 is built in Poland but the factory shuts down for August"

Good luck trying to join the developed world Poland....

 

[scout]

"the 500 is built in Poland but the factory shuts down for August"

Good luck trying to join the developed world Poland....

Italy, France and some of Germany do the same. They worked out some time ago that its difficult to keep production lines working when most of your workforce want to be on holiday with their kids. Some factory's here close for 1 or 2 weeks in the summer for the same reason.

 

[portland_bill]

I think I heard that sometime last year production of the 500 was to be moved from Poland to Italy.
Wherever, it is likely to be held up by their holiday.

 

[bgunn]

A bit confused here... My dealer is telling me that my car is at status 30 of production and then will get stuck in Italy ( August holiday) before shipping to UK. I thought 500 were built in Poland... What's Italy got to do with production and delivery?

Nothing. They're made in Tychy, and have never been made in Italy. As ever, the dealer is talking arse.

 

[bgunn]

Italy, France and some of Germany do the same. They worked out some time ago that its difficult to keep production lines working when most of your workforce want to be on holiday with their kids. Some factory's here close for 1 or 2 weeks in the summer for the same reason.

It's also a good way to introduce model year changes, repair tooling etc. Almost every car factory in the world will have a shutdown period for at least a few weeks.

 

[portland_bill]

Factory shutdowns have existed since the first factories in the industrial revolution. Failed machinery caused whole factories to stop, costing a lot in lost production. Factories introduced a system where they would close for two weeks, during which time all the moving parts were refurbished, bearings replaced, etc. This reduced failures during the year to a minimum. It also gave the workers a holiday, probably unpaid. Often the factories would organise mass trips by chartered trains to the seaside for their workers. (Having grown up in Weymouth, then moved to work in Oxford, it is surprising how many Oxford families still go to Weymouth for their holidays, just like previous generations of their families) Factories all over the world still have shutdowns for refurbishment purposes, not just car factories.

Why though, if you run more than one factory, do you shut them all at the same time?

 

[scout]

Why though, if you run more than one factory, do you shut them all at the same time?

Because school holidays are roughly the same the world over and if your forcing people to have a set holiday the ones with kids want a holiday they can spend with them.

 

[elpio]

Thanks everyone! Basically it's just my dealer talking out of his a**e...

 

[beany_bot]

Here is a brainstorm...
Allow people to choose their own annual leave (within reason) and then your factories can run 12 months of the year. It's not hard. It's not as if hospitals and airlines shut down for a month every year.

 

[bgunn]

Because making cars is somewhat more complex than making mobile phones, for example. Not sure how the comparison with a hospital or an airline stands?

 

[scout]

We are talking about production lines, if personnel are missing it would seriously slow up the line. Better to shut the whole line, do vital maintanence and give the workforce their statutary holiday all in one go. (they shut down over Christmas too )

 

[staffordmike]

Slightly off topic but car-part related. TRW, who make brakes, seatbelts etc have a factory in the North of England. There used to be two production lines running side by side, each with one operative, until someone had the bright idea of turning one line through 180 degrees so products from one line went straight onto the next...and then they only needed one worker! Don't know if the whole factory shuts down when he's on holiday.

 

[306maxi]

Here is a brainstorm...
Allow people to choose their own annual leave (within reason) and then your factories can run 12 months of the year. It's not hard. It's not as if hospitals and airlines shut down for a month every year.

Here's a brainstorm, the rest of Europe doesn't run the way that the UK runs

Cheers

 

[bgunn]

Here's a brainstorm, the rest of Europe doesn't run the way that the UK runs

Cheers

You'll find BMW, JLR, Nissan, Toyota and Ford shut down their plants in the UK during summer just like the others.

It's an engineering thing, not a 'car production' thing. Those who sit behind desks fail to understand these things, I guess. Bear in mind that a car factory will have upwards of 5000 people working in them, bolting together cars. So those people who screw dashboards in, screw dashboards in. If there's no dashboard screwer, then no dashboards are screwed in, and production stops, therefore you get the whole factory full of assembly workers to **** off on their summer holidays, then they come back fresh and make good cars again.

 

[bgunn]

Why though, if you run more than one factory, do you shut them all at the same time?

Because, most of the time, a factory doesn't work in isolation and is dependant upon external suppliers (other factories). If they all bugger off at once, it's easier to manage.

 

[306maxi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_in_time_(business)

Some reading for people.....

 

[mark65]

You'll find BMW, JLR, Nissan, Toyota and Ford shut down their plants in the UK during summer just like the others.

It's an engineering thing, not a 'car production' thing. Those who sit behind desks fail to understand these things, I guess. Bear in mind that a car factory will have upwards of 5000 people working in them, bolting together cars. So those people who screw dashboards in, screw dashboards in. If there's no dashboard screwer, then no dashboards are screwed in, and production stops, therefore you get the whole factory full of assembly workers to **** off on their summer holidays, then they come back fresh and make good cars again.

You are right about jlr shutting down I work in the halewood plant and we are shutting down this weekend for 3 weeksas you say an awful lot of maintenance is carried out and replacing of machinery all of which can't he done when your producing 24 hours a day 6 days a week which we are

 

[scout]

I was a service engineer for some Italian and German manufacturers (not automotive) and all of them shut for the whole of August, just means you have to carry a bit of extra stock in the UK to cover the lack of spares coming from the factory.