Re: One Story Assembly Plant What If?

Posted by 58L8134 On 2014/6/8 17:47:49

Hi Steve203

Thanks for the in depth analysis of a conjectured Willow Run procurement, interesting reading. The small window of opportunity becomes obvious, only June to September '53. It would have required very swift action on the part of Nance. As much as he was still groping his way to an understanding of multiple problems and sorting out the management inertia, acting on W-R was probably more than he could ever have accomplished, even if the finances were available.

Since W-R was a bridge too far, I wonder if EGB could have been organized in such a way to emulate a single story plant in the interim until a new assembly plant could have been built at Utica? Once the J-47 contract was gone, that must have freed up space but was it all at Utica?

Christopher touted the duel assembly lines instituted for 200K units; were those still in place, one line could have been converted for complete body assembly and trim, phasing out Connor over a couple of years. Unfortunate as the timing for acquisition of a body operation was, leasing Connor was the only solution....but only as a body plant

Where I'm going with this was to keep operations at Connor and EGB stable and trouble-free while the V8s' were finding buyer acceptance. As relatively unfamiliar, changed and complicated as the 1955 models were, assembly operational stability was key to putting highly satisfactory cars into customer hands in the critical early sales season. One would think that Nance, who emphasized marketing and sales wouldn't have allowed anything to disrupt the 1955 introduction.

Steve

PS: I'll have more comments later on the Studebaker off the Packard Clipper platform....like the idea!