|
January 26, 2009
Obama Trying To Sink Auto Industry
Making things is magic and changing the way things are made doesn't cost much. At least according to Mr. Obama who wants states to be in the Federal regulation business when it comes to automobiles. President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two administration officials said Sunday.The auto companies are already reeling from the bad economy and now they will be forced to re-tool their whole business. Quickly. And why does he think American auto companies are in trouble? Not enough cars of tomorrow. Seriously. It is not the unions. It is not the management. It is not quality problems. It is a lack of futuristic thinking. The first memorandum ordered the Transportation Department to work out rules for automakers to improve fuel economy. It calls for the department to notify automakers by March 2009 to increase their fuel efficiency for 2011 model year cars and trucks.The design cycle for a modified production vehicle is three to four years depending on the extent of the modifications. These would be vehicles that could be built on current production lines with existing tooling and includes a shakedown period to test the new designs and get the bugs out. Now consider that the 2011 model year goes on sale in late 2010. So by government fiat he is going to get a 3 to 4 year process compressed into 18 months. The man is a miracle worker. Ah. But that is not the worst of it. If the mandates require a major redesign it can take about 5 to 6 years to get the logistics in place. Here are the general steps: New design And he can reduce a process that takes from 3 to 6 years into 18 months by fiat? The man is a genius. Let us consider WW2 production. The rule was that in the first year (if the design was ready to go) 1 to 10 units. In the second year hundreds. In the third year - as many as you want. And that was in a simpler time when government hadn't saddled industry with a morass of regulations. Mr Obama is simply ignorant of logistics. He is operating under the rubric of "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And of course since Mr. Obama is not a maker he has gone one step further and assumed that making things is magic and the normal rules of the universe do not apply. Time, space, energy, and the necessity to create the requsite ideas are instantly erased. You just think of what you want, wave the magic wand and presto. A million copies of your fantastic idea magically appear. Obama said the fix will help the auto industry produce a viable product.Is he really serious about not being held hostage to dwindling resources? So where is his proposal for increasing American oil production? Not in evidence. And letting states determine what can be sold in their individual markets? That means the rules of the game will be changing frequently. Which is very bad for logistics planning. Every new rule or addition delays the production process. Mr. Obama needs to read a book. I suggest this one to start: Fundamentals of Production Planning and Control. This whole deal can only end badly. Very badly. What ever happened to the administration that was supposed to be guided by science? By understanding of the fundamentals of engineering and technology? I guess we are fortunate that we have not elected a manager. We have instead elected a magician. God help us. Because it is obvious Mr. Obama will not. Cross Posted at Power and Control posted by Simon on 01.26.09 at 12:42 PM
Comments
Product development cycle is not the problem. The big 3 (big 2.8?) have plenty of 35 mpg cars in production. Chevy has Aveo, Cobalt, and Malibu for example. What Detroit hates, is loosing the sales of thirsty but highly profitable Cadillac Escalades, Dodge Ram Hemis, and Hummers. To get the AVERAGE mileage up, they have to drop the big profitable gas guzzlers and make nothing but light weight low power econoboxes. David Starr · January 26, 2009 04:11 PM That whole "Commerce Clause" thingie is overrated. Perhaps we should have stuck with the old "Articles of Confederation." Would we have ended up fighting the Civil War? Would we have ended up with some/all states back within the Commonwealth? OregonGuy · January 26, 2009 07:53 PM jarnco5@gmail.com Voice Of Conservative America just visited your quality blog site jarnco5 · January 27, 2009 12:52 AM Design and prototyping won't be the problem, as such cars are already sold in Europe. Ford has a good market share over here, which may have been a factor in its decision to forego any rescue packages. Daran · January 27, 2009 03:06 AM I thought that Ford and others couldn't count non US-made cars in their CAFE calculations for the US made fleet. If they could, then they could bring the euro-made Focus and other cars here and knock a few points off their CAFE score while ditching their sub-standard US-made econoboxen. brian · January 27, 2009 10:08 AM Anybody can buy the "cars of tomorrow," they're called TOYOTAS. Bob · January 27, 2009 04:41 PM Moving the goalpost in the midst of a crisis...Brilliant! Scott Wiggins · January 28, 2009 06:04 PM Post a comment
You may use basic HTML for formatting.
|
|
January 2009
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR
Search the Site
E-mail
Classics To Go
Archives
January 2009
December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 May 2002 AB 1634 MBAPBSAAGOP Skepticism See more archives here Old (Blogspot) archives
Recent Entries
Death Of A Religion
A New Kind Of Transistor Meanwhile in Ann Arbor.... Your Typical Palestinian Wants War Big Shipping Decline Your typical Jew wants war? A single nuclear free day can ruin your nice junkyard! Azam Ali - Niyaz At The Movies Banks Still Getting Illegal Cash
Links
Site Credits
|
|
So maybe one of the car manufacturers will decide to pull out of California.