Re: One Story Assembly Plant What If?

Posted by Steve203 On 2014/6/9 11:55:12

<i>...perhaps retaining stamping operations at Connor for the time being but phasing in complete body jigging, welding through final trim to EGB on a second floor body line above the chassis line would have been the solution. It's something of a work-around but still utilizes the main plant more fully, rather than creates more unused space.</i>

That phased transition to bringing bodybuilding into EGB is, according to Ward, what Nance wanted to do. Briggs being sold forced Nance to make other plans on short notice. As for the unused space at EGB from moving final assembly to Conner, reportedly the Board decided to sell all the facilities south of East Grand in the spring of 56, just retaining the offices and shops north of the street.

It's dealer network was broader but populated with many small, weak dealers, though could have given Packard better coverage when dualed.


Ward noted that some Packard dealers were so poor they didn't even have a Packard demonstrator. In 58, we relocated from Dearborn to Kalamazoo. According to the dealer directory on this site, the address of the Kalamazoo Packard dealer was in a somewhat sketchy neighborhood. I remember the Studebaker dealer however, a reasonably nice building in a prime location on Michigan Ave, right across the street from the Rambler dealer. A more agressive dualing of dealerships would probably have been an upgrade for Packard in that town.

Retaining the Chippewa plant to build trucks and Hawks for '56 on would have keep the dealers happy while giving them new larger Commanders and Presidents,

The problem with retaining Chippewa Ave is Packard would still have to deal with local 5. I suspect that Chippewa was also dependant on the main South Bend complex for stampings and power train, so you would have to buy more facilities to support Chippewa, or create more logistics problems supplying the plant from Detroit.

If Packard really wanted any Studebaker facility, I would have gone for Hamilton, Ontario. A reasonably modern plant, with a breakeven, iirc, of 30,000/yr. Hamilton appears to have created it's own local supply chain for everything but powertrain, which was shipped from South Bend. The only thing I would have done with that plant, with that small capacity, would be move the truck line in.

The truck line introduces another problem, what to do about powertrain? A short stroke V8 with a torque peak of some 2500rpm isn't really the thing to have. After the AMC merger, Hudson producton was consolidated in Kenosha, but the Hudson engine plant in Detroit was kept operating so the Kenosha built Hudson Hornet could still be offered with the 308. A Studebaker truck with a Hudson "big six"? Stump pulling torque at 1800rpm? Then make up a different name, like the Transtar name that Studie started using in 56, and have AMC distribute them as well as Studebaker, as neither Nash or Hudson built trucks at that time?

Then there is the local 5 issue.

At that time, it was legal for a solvent company to shut a division and stiff the pensioners. Studebaker's pension fund was severely underfunded because it had only been established around 1950, and it immediately vested benefits for the large portion of the workforce that had been with Studebaker for 30-40 years. When Studie closed South Bend in 63, they distributed the pension fund assets as far as they went, and the other ex-employees were out of luck, even though Studebaker Corporation was a solvent, contnuing company. This led to the establishment of the PBGC some 10 years later.

Less well known was that Packard's pension fund was also underfunded. The Packard and Studebaker pension funds had never been merged, so when EGB was closed, those employees were stiffed the same way South Bend workers were a few years later.

When Kaiser bailed out of W-R, it stiffed it's employees as well, though, being a much newer company, did not have the large numbers of people with decades of service who thought they had vested pension benefits.

<i>......like handling a poisonous snake!</i>

or, as someone said "like making love to a porcupine"