question regarding automotive factories

[blingbling]

i have a friend who is currently employed at the toyota factory in woodstock ontario and there are some gruelsome stories he had told me that I was wondering whether or not the any of you guys know about

the first thing that you see as you walk into this factory is a sign telling you to "check your pride, and ambition at the door". this sign was created by a factory worker still currently employed there that received a athletic scholarship to the university of michigan to play offensive line. he blew out his knee in ann harbour and his student-athlete dreams were crushed.

on the line, my friend's spot is where he, along other tasks, greases the insides of a connecter in the altinator. HOWEVER, the engineers already have announced that this connector's lubricant is not needed by any standards, low or high, and that the connector should just be applied dry. but due to a disconnect between design and manufacturing, this obsolete, time-consuming step is still present.

he then tells me a story where an employee drove to his supervisor's house with a car loaded with guns to kill him, but crashed into a light pole before reaching there because he was drunk. he died.

then theres the story of his current supervisor whose presence, because he is a 3 time convicted fellon for sexual assault, now forbids any females to be working on the assembly line.

for the OVERALL LINE STAFF, around half of the people there use steroids. also for the overall line staff, around half (which may or may not include the aforementioned steroid users) also abuse other narcotics (including alcohol) that is not cannabis, or tobacco.

these numbers are considered low in the automotive manufacturing industry. the average is 65-70%

now upon hearing this, i am still shocked at learning this AND the fact that toyotas are known for their reliability above any other brand. and even with such disillusioned staffing, can still pump out long lasting vehicles? thats crazy!

does anyone else have other factory stories, or confirmation on any of these facts?

[Matra et Alpine]

Explains the state of the NA car companies

Doesn't match any of the folks I've known who've workd on auto - or any other - productino line in the UK !

[drakkie]

Explains the state of the NA car companies

Doesn't match any of the folks I've known who've workd on auto - or any other - productino line in the UK !

Same here, i've been to both the production lines of Nedcar(Mitsubishi and Citroen) and DAF and not such a thing. The staff on the line is usually low-schooled though and because of that the chance they smoke, drink etcetera is a bit higher offcourse. That is everywhere.

[clutch-monkey]

how much of that is exaggeration and chinese whispers?

[Rockefella]

how much of that is exaggeration and chinese whispers?

It's probably a lot of that. Wouldn't be surprised if some people get driven hard though.

[blackcat77]

I worked at Delco-Remy for eight years. The horror stories are urban legends but the truth is that they were woefully non-cost-effective and that's why the factories which used to employ 25,000 people in my home town are now gone and so are all the jobs. Nothing remains of those plants but concrete slabs and the jobs are all in Mexico and the far east.

Yes, I *am* bitter about it.

[Bob]

Not sure if it was before or after those jobs left that this started to happen, but delco parts are currently crap and overpriced. IE my delco valves for air conditioning (two separate parts) both failed within months.

Even worse, a set of 8 delco fuel injectors costs around 2 grand! while the same set of eight goes for $200 from Ford racing performance parts, accel, bosch, etc.
needless to say, i wont be buying anymore delco parts

[henk4]

i have a friend who is currently employed at the toyota factory in woodstock ontario and there are some gruelsome stories he had told me that I was wondering whether or not the any of you guys know about

the first thing that you see as you walk into this factory is a sign telling you to "check your pride, and ambition at the door". this sign was created by a factory worker still currently employed there that received a athletic scholarship to the university of michigan to play offensive line. he blew out his knee in ann harbour and his student-athlete dreams were crushed.

on the line, my friend's spot is where he, along other tasks, greases the insides of a connecter in the altinator. HOWEVER, the engineers already have announced that this connector's lubricant is not needed by any standards, low or high, and that the connector should just be applied dry. but due to a disconnect between design and manufacturing, this obsolete, time-consuming step is still present.

he then tells me a story where an employee drove to his supervisor's house with a car loaded with guns to kill him, but crashed into a light pole before reaching there because he was drunk. he died.

then theres the story of his current supervisor whose presence, because he is a 3 time convicted fellon for sexual assault, now forbids any females to be working on the assembly line.

for the OVERALL LINE STAFF, around half of the people there use steroids. also for the overall line staff, around half (which may or may not include the aforementioned steroid users) also abuse other narcotics (including alcohol) that is not cannabis, or tobacco.

these numbers are considered low in the automotive manufacturing industry. the average is 65-70%

now upon hearing this, i am still shocked at learning this AND the fact that toyotas are known for their reliability above any other brand. and even with such disillusioned staffing, can still pump out long lasting vehicles? thats crazy!

does anyone else have other factory stories, or confirmation on any of these facts?

any stories about other branches of manufacturing? Is this automotive specific or Canadian specific?

[RacingManiac]

The quality and such are not really that affected on that level, as if the parts are designed properly for assembly online(as in so simple you can probably train a monkey to do it), and that you control the parts from your suppliers properly(as Toyota seriously demands it), the stuff that rolls out the other end will be statiscally good....

The problem with mass production as introduced by Henry Ford and now perfected by companies like Toyota is that its a minial, mentally dull, and non-stimulating job. Job satisfaction is probably not high. But the required level of education and training is low, as such you can always find people for it...

I doubt the percentage of occurance of stuff mentioned in the story is high, but I don't doubt they are true....though most people I've met in a plant seems perfectly normal. During my internship year I worked as a junior manufacturing engineer in an automotive seat components plant and the only thing that kinda stood out was how many of the workers were immigrants...but other than that nothing really seem that odd...