[Amc-list] Sins

[Don Johnson <donjohnson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark wrote;
The problem with that line of reasoning is that we're no longer in a market 
isolated by oceans.  Technology and infrastructure have improved so much in 
the past thirty years that we are no longer in a situation where we're 
competing only against each other; we're now competing against each other 
**as well as** the three billion Chinese, Indian, and Indonesian workers 
who want a piece of our action and are willing to take a tenth of what we 
demand for our labor.
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Sure, but our auto makers aren't competing against Chinese, Indian or Indonesian auto workers, they're competing against the Japanese and Europeans.
I haven't seen the Japanese or Europeans sending their production to those countries.
A little reading on the internet gave me some interesting points.
1.  A Japanese company building a car in Japan uses a little over 18 hours of labour to build the car.
2.  A Japanese company building a car in the US takes 22 hours.
3.  A US company building a car in the US takes 27 hours.
Most of the difference is that US carmakers don't use as many robots.
The big issue, in my mind, is the product quality.
In case 1 they experience 51 defects per 100 cars built.
In case 2 they have 47.
In case 3 they have 91.
This points out a couple of things. While labour is a factor in the price of a car, it is not a huge factor. If the US modernized their factories and used more robots, they could cut down that labour cost and the rate of defects.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The competition from Japan and Korea put Detroit on its knees, beginniong 
in the mid-seventies, and has basically been able to keep it from fully 
recovering ever since.  When the fifty-odd Chinese manufacturers manage to 
get here, Detroit will simply evaporate.
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I disagree, when those products hit our shores they were no competition to the big 3. They were garbage, but they kept improving and the arrogant big 3 never improved their products until they were forced to. Any improvements in the big 3 products in the last 30 years, I believe, are because of offshore competition. Without that, I think we would still be driving 20 year old technology.
Management failed to see the danger and respond and the only other people to blame are the workers. If you do that, you get to keep the millions in pay and stock options and hide your incompetance.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One sure way to kill off your R&D departments budget is to fatten the 
payroll.  
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Not sure what you're saying here. Are you saying they shouldn't pay the employees in R & D more money?
More likely, you're saying that money to run R & D needs to come out of the production line employees pay.
In my view, R & D money is spent to keep a leader in front of the competition. We're not talking about that. The competition is showing the way forward and taking the risk about what will work and what won't, learn from them. Focus on building a well engineered, dependable product and the maket will respond.
I think people in North America will naturally buy American cars IF they are equal to the competition. They will not buy a lesser product just because it's made here.

Let's go back to talking AMC's.
Don

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