Re: Packard Plant update....

Posted by Leeedy On 2023/2/26 22:03:41
Quote:

JeromeSolberg wrote:
This is just a question for the experts:

I had always figured that, while final assembly was moved to the Conner Avenue plant, and engine and axle assembly had been moved to the Utica plant, that some smaller components would have been continued to have been manufactured in a portion of the East Grand complex, where they had presumably had been for some time. Given the space issues they had at Conner Avenue, it would think they would have tried to maximize space there by keeping what production they could at East Grand? Maybe not.


Not really true.

First of all, Utica was engine and transmissions. Some other pieces were also made there.

A significant part of the East Grand Blvd. plant was occupied with body transport, body storage and component storage. This took up a lot of imagined free space. Plus Briggs was actually renting additional space in the plant. AND there were always trucks coming and going to and from Briggs over on Conner. With production relocated to Conner... all this became unnecessary.

As for Conner Avenue there were some space issues, but many of those "issues" were just as much organizational as spatial.

It is also a pity that the modern method that Packard was attempting to do at Conner has been so bitterly criticized. But when the Japanese used this same process years later in their plants they were hailed as geniuses! The production process is known as "Just In Time" or "J.I.T."

In J.I.T. a part or component or subassembly is delivered to the factory just in time for it to be assembled on a vehicle. This way requires far less handling and storage space to be allotted for keeping such items on hand.

In this process, it is the vendor who needs to be at the top of their game. And some weren't. This got blamed on Packard.

But those anxious to criticize Packard or J.J. Nance for imagined inept thinking jumped all over what Packard was attempting to do at the time. Of course the industry in the USA was (as a whole) not fully embracing J.I.T. at the time. And there were obviously numerous teething problems and adjustments that resulted from the move to Conner. But the issues were/are not nearly as cut and dried as most critics and critiques imagine.

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