Quote:
Tim Cole wrote:
The typical plant numbers I hear today are around one car every 1.2 minutes or 50 cars per hour. That's 400 per shift, and 432,000 per year for a plant running full capacity. However, those goals aren't met given annual tooling and change over.
The only way Packard could sell cars at 2.4 minutes per car would be using dealer floor plans. The dealers would then have to figure out how to "move the iron."
For a rough estimate, I figure an auto plant runs about 48 weeks a year, after deducting summer and winter shutdowns and holidays.
Studebaker could push the South Bend lines up to 66 cars/hr, but their cars were rather simple. When the Lincoln plant in Wayne first opened, it's rate was 320/shift/day, for a rate of 40/hr. Using the 48 week rule, that would be 76,800/year.
In comparison, Grant figured that, with the final assembly line added, Conner could turn out 25 cars/hr. Once the place was running, the plant manager said he could turn out 25/hr, "and not one of them will pass inspection". Given the overtime schedule and double shifts Conner worked in 55, that 55,000 produced works out to about 11 cars/hr, then add the shift premiums, overtime pay, then the rework time and material and warranty claims from the shoddy assembly. It's a miracle they managed to break even.
In my favorite alternate reality, where Packard buys Hudson in 53 and consolidates assembly at E Grand, rather than buying Studebaker in 54, adding 54 Packard, Clipper and Hudson Hornet and Wasp together, for a total of 67,727, puts E Grand not far off of a full single shift production schedule in the heart of the Ford/GM price war.
In 55, the market didn't like the Hash, so adding strong Packard and Clipper sales to weak Hornet and Wasp gives a total of 75,568, almost dead on a full single shift schedule for E Grand, without the overtime of the 9hr/2 shift/3 Saturdays per month schedule Conner was running. If the market liked the Clipper based Hudsons better, the company may be looking at a 100,000 unit year.
Why all this matters is Walter Grant figured if Packard ran a separate body plant with final assembly at E Grand, break even would be at 30,000/yr.
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