GM Sent Engineers On Factory Tours To "Observe" F150 Production In Action

When you think of corporate espionage, you think of documents exchanging hands in dark parking garages, or hackers breaking into company mainframes. But GM is better than all that, and instead opted to walk in the front door in their attempts to best the Ford F-150, the best-selling truck in America. That meant GM engineers joining public factory tours of Ford’s Dearborn plant. The engineers studied Ford’s production methods and said, yeah, we can do better.
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MDarringer - 8/10/2018 11:00:55 AM

-1 Boost

I'm sure this report is largely BS. I'll bet the way an F150 is screwed together is little different than the way a Silverado is put together. They likely learned far more through their conventional benchmarking process than poking at stop watches while on a factory tour. Being able to build Silverados more quickly will not increase sales.

dumpsty - 8/10/2018 11:31:00 AM

+4 Boost

It's likely that all automakers have done this to each other at some point. Informal look at assembly production as it happens during a normal day. It all helps to improve safety, assembly processes & reduce times to assemble the completed units. That helps to reduce production costs for a particular product or facility.

ricks0me - 8/10/2018 1:35:37 PM

+2 Boost

And don't forget this >>>> They all buy each other's product for "reverse engineering"

TomM - 8/10/2018 2:55:40 PM

+1 Boost

Decades ago - when I was a Boy Scout - our troop visited the Edison Ford Vehicle assembly plant. Later we Visited the General Motors Linden Assembly plant - they gave us refreshments at the GM plant.

Having said that - anyone who has EVER visited a Vehicle assembly plant is likely to at least have said that they NEVER would purchase any of the cars built there. THe assembly lines do not stop - and each "position" has a task - it might be to put in two bolts - they ONLY have enough time for ONE try on each - and if one or both does not make it - you end up with a rattle somewhere - but they do not stop the line.

However - the two lines did have distinct differences - and yes - one line had a better way to do one thing - while the other did something else better. THAT is just the facts of life - and you can learn by observing.

EVisNow - 8/10/2018 5:10:40 PM

+2 Boost

Why do you keep talking about 50, 60 years ago ? We live in 2018 now - technology has left you a long time ago.

TomM - 8/10/2018 6:26:26 PM

+2 Boost

I live TODAY - but if we cannot learn from the past - we are doomed to repeat it. YOU are correct - the conditions I described were that long ago (WHich is WHY I mentioned that) - but I will bet that ALL assembly lines still have similar conditions in that you cannot stop them for a small problem.

BUT The purpose of the thread was to say that even today - all lines are not equal and do not all do the same things the same way - and YOU can learn from others - since New Technology is being adapted in different ways - and New Technology is happening quicker as well. That is why Manufacturers regularly offer their employees Bonuses for coming up with ways to improve production - and believe it or not - people still come up with Valid ones today. Sometimes - technology is NOT the final answer.