Yeah, do that. It might be interesting to really know.

Oh, ask the time from start to finish for one car. Not how many they build an hour....which would be a different value.

 

Got the answer today from my Friend Bob Lutz Vice-Chairman of General Motors, this is what he answered me:

Inside an assembly plant, the average car today is at around 20 hours. It depends on the complexity of the vehicle and the degree of automation. An Escalade might be 25 hours. A Pontiac G-6 more like 18-19 hours.
This includes the metal stampings, which do not involve much labor per part.

 

So does that answer the question? Let's say an HHR takes 20 hours to build....if our build date is xx/xx/2006 is that the day is was started or 20 hours later? I'm sure there is some process but does that mean all cars for that day are completed the same day?


Goose

 

Here's something to think about...

The "build date" everyone talks about is actually the date that the completed vehicle is invoiced to the dealer it is being shipped to.

If the plant produces 7 days a week, it is also likely that the office personel only work Mon. - Fri., unlike the production workers. The office workers do the "paperwork". So, if a car is completed on a Sat., it won't be invoiced until Mon. Maybe that explains why the plant builds 7 days a week, yet nobody has seen a "build date" on a weekend? Just speculation here.

 

There are no "office" workers at the plant that only work 5 days a week. Production schedules and invoicing are done by computer and every car is actually an allocated order before it is assembled. The build sheet is printed and tagged to the vehicle as soon as the floor structure hits the line. Every option code and delivery data are encoded on the build sheet. I'd be curious to see where Pittsburg is getting "born on" date numbers from.

Now, on the weekends, at least in the US they only work one shift. One eight to ten hour shift isn't going to get a whole lot of vehicles started compared to the two or three shifts working the rest of the week.