Richard Casto wrote:
I agree. What used to be secret domain or tribal knowledge has become more of a science. That the general basics of "how to do it right" are now down to specific formulas. But that once everyone knows how to do it, you just have to do it just as well, but for less money.
I guess that pretty much sums up the formula for much of China's current success. I was going to get into that in my initial post, but decided not to open that can of worms (but what the heck, this thread is infinitely long already
).
On the other hand, we were in Germany back in July, and one of the things we did was tour the Porsche factory in Stuttgart. I was astounded by how much manual labor is still used building Porsches. The Stuttgart factory builds all 911s and the Boxster, and they build the engines for all the Porsche cars/SUV.
Take for example the dashboard for the 911 -- there is a small section of the factory where painstaking hand assembly of the dash is done, using hides that have been carefully screened and cut (also nearby but using high tech s/w to scan the thing and maximize usage). Craftsman (and they definitely deserved that title from watching them work!) use heat guns and soft tools to precisely cover each dashboard in leather, etc.
Similarly on the assembly line, there are portions that require a LOT of hand labor -- much more so than the BMW line in Spartanburg. It moves very slow too allowing careful assembly -- typical German work going on from what I observed: very precise and accurate with great pride in doing a job well. I did note that when a GT3RS came down the line that there was a special process to install the non-glass rear window which required two guys to stop what they were doing and take a long time (compared to typical 911 rear glass) to install.
That said, it was massively impressive to see the whole facility, especially the engine assembly line. The way the parts are inventoried -- complete automation similar to someplace like Spartanburg I assume, how they fill a "cart" with specific parts for the build with a process which prevents mistakes, etc.
So...all that got me to wondering about Porsche's future. If I ran that place, I would running scared of future competition basically taking my feet out from under me while I didn't think it would be possible (and perhaps didn't even realize it until it was too late).
Chuck
P.S. Oh, and the new museum there is awesome. I have a ton of pictures I should get on line from it including the disassembled 917-30 engine display which was really awesome to examine.
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