Quote:
Originally Posted by footfootfoot
Why not re-tool all the plants to build rail cars and get the country into feasible rail travel?
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All patriotic auto companies had retooled their factories 10+ years ago to be flexible as well as build the new models. For example, a Toyota plant in Indiana making Tundras was changed in maybe a month to make Camrys. That was the latest auto industry innovation a decade ago when GM decided to address quality - a 1970s technology.
It takes GM something between three months and one year to retool a factory. Just another example of why GM needs bankruptcy. GM bean counters decided that flex manufacturing would only increase costs.
Remember the first Saturn factory in Spring Hill TN? GM cannot even decide what to make there. Every time a decision is made to make a new car there, the plans get quashed. Management plans to convert the factory to a new car. Long later, GM learns the factory is inflexible - cannot make that car. GM has gone through this 'maybe we will do this' cycle twice. Spring Hill may get closed because GM bean counters stifled another innovation over a decade ago - flexible manufacturing.