CAR Director of Manufacturing, Engineering, & Technology Abe Vadhavkar writes about the impact of sourcing tools overseas on the US tool & die sector. The report states that new tooling sourced in Low Cost Countries such as China and Taiwan may cost 20 percent lower than US sourced tooling, with similar time-to-completion, even with shipping. Among other things, the report highlights the advanced age of US tool & die workers and potential for US-based shops to become technologically uncompetitive without new tooling business to support investment in newest machinery & tryout equipment. This report offers steps to revitalize the US tool & die sector.
The Nissan assembly plant in Smyrna, TN makes 640,000 vehicles a year, and it’s stamping plant supports production of 1.2 million vehicles. The stamping plant goes through 375 tons of steel and 14 tons of aluminum every day.
automotivemanufacturingsolutions.com/focus/stamp-of-approval
-Danny Schaeffler, https://www.EQSgroup.com and https://www.Learning4M.com
“Cracks found in the Transbay Terminal superstructure appear to have started at the sharp corners of holes cut into vital steel beams during construction.” The San Francisco transit center opened in late August after 10 years of construction, costing $2.2 billion. And a month later, beams with cracks were found, leading to it’s closure “out of an abundance of caution.” This is going to be a costly mistake (covered under warranty!)
“If you don’t have the time and resources to do things right the first time, how will you find the time and resources to do it over again?” – me.
-Danny Schaeffler, www.EQSgroup.com and www.Learning4M.com
Images from https://sf.curbed.com/2018/9/26/17907592/transbay-transit-center-salesforce-crack-found-new-closed
NIST and industry partners create new lab test to provide quantitative data on the scratch and damage resistance of automobile polymer clearcoat layers. Compare this with the 2 common methods currently used that provide only qualitative assessments: one is a rotating wheel of brushes to simulate car wash damage, and the other is a robotic ‘finger” moving back and forth to mimic damage from human contact and abrasive surfaces. Both of these “methods only assess clearcoat performance based on appearance, a qualitative measure where the results vary from test to test, and they don’t provide the quantitative data that scientifically helps us understand what happens to auto finishes in real life.”
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2018/09/improve-auto-coatings-new-tests-do-more-scratch-surface
-Danny Schaeffler, www.EQSgroup.com and www.Learning4M.com
After almost 20 years of losses, GM’s former European division is profitable one year after being sold to the parent company of Peugeot/Citroën. There are obviously many reasons, but some that stood out to me:
– an agreement with labor to trim salary costs by reducing the standard workweek to 35 hours from 40.
– assembly output reduced in Rüsselsheim to 42 vehicles per hour instead of 55 to “focus on cars customers actually want to buy.”
– On the Corsa model which starts at about $14,000, there are 10 possible infotainment systems, down from 57 (!) and there are now 9 windshield / wiper options, down from 16.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-29/the-stunning-one-year-turnaround-of-gm-s-german-castoff
-Danny Schaeffler, https://www.eqsgroup.com/ and http://www.Learning4M.com
dannyeqs
Bill Frahm