Re: One Story Assembly Plant What If?
Posted by Steve203 On 2014/6/22 18:19:47
WHY Packard didn't assume lease/ownership/control of the Briggs/Conner plant and just continue the status quo of the building of Packard bodies for 1955
Packard Treasurer Walter Grant figured that continuing as before with body contruction at Conner and final assembly at EBG would save $8M/yr, while combining final assembly at Conner would save $12M/yr. It looked good on paper...
If Conner had excess capacity it could have been used for other stampings and assembly.
It appears that, not only did Conner not have excess capacity, but it was already undersized as Briggs had been leasing some $178,000sqft at EGB.
people like Ray Powers who made very bad recommendations.
Powers came over from Ford in June 53. He was probably involved in the layout of Wayne Assembly, which opened in 52, so that was the layout he was familiar with, not improvising in an obsolete 50 year old facility like EGB.
I wonder when it occured to someone to take the doors off a car before sending it down the line for interior installation, as is done now at the Rouge F-150 plant? As the pic shows, the doors restrict access to the interior. And the doors hanging open as the car moves down the line would seem to invite scratches and dings. I have seen pix of the Kaiser line, and they were all going down the line with the doors open too.
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Packard Treasurer Walter Grant figured that continuing as before with body contruction at Conner and final assembly at EBG would save $8M/yr, while combining final assembly at Conner would save $12M/yr. It looked good on paper...
If Conner had excess capacity it could have been used for other stampings and assembly.
It appears that, not only did Conner not have excess capacity, but it was already undersized as Briggs had been leasing some $178,000sqft at EGB.
people like Ray Powers who made very bad recommendations.
Powers came over from Ford in June 53. He was probably involved in the layout of Wayne Assembly, which opened in 52, so that was the layout he was familiar with, not improvising in an obsolete 50 year old facility like EGB.
I wonder when it occured to someone to take the doors off a car before sending it down the line for interior installation, as is done now at the Rouge F-150 plant? As the pic shows, the doors restrict access to the interior. And the doors hanging open as the car moves down the line would seem to invite scratches and dings. I have seen pix of the Kaiser line, and they were all going down the line with the doors open too.
Attach file:
(74.56 KB)
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