Mickey Kaus digs up an NYT article ($ needed for full access) from 1981 comparing the manufacturing of Ford Escorts at plants in Germany and at Halewood on Merseyside. It is, as you might expect, exceedingly grisly stuff:
This [German] plant produces some 1,200 cars a day, more than the 1,015 that Ford planners had anticipated, and requires 7,762 workers. Its counterpart at Halewood, with virtually identical equipment and production targets, has averaged only about 800 cars a day this year, and 10,040 workers have been needed to achieve even that production level.
”Our standards say it should take something like 20 man-hours of labor in both the body and assembly plants to make an Escort,” said Bill Hayden, vice president of manufacturing for Ford Europe Inc., in an interview. ”At Saarlouis, they do it with 21 hours. At Halewood it takes 40 hours.” …
Aside from statistics, subjective differences between the two factories become evident.
”Our standards say it should take something like 20 man-hours of labor in both the body and assembly plants to make an Escort,” said Bill Hayden, vice president of manufacturing for Ford Europe Inc., in an interview. ”At Saarlouis, they do it with 21 hours. At Halewood it takes 40 hours.” …
Aside from statistics, subjective differences between the two factories become evident.
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