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Simply unbelievable


Guest Harold

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Where I work we have thousands of tonnes of product sitting in warehouses, we are making product for customers that don't exist at the moment. We are making stuff just to keep people in a job, it is feared that if they lay everyone off that the work will pick up and most of the skilled people will not come back to work for this company, we are about to have another shutdown and this will be 21 weeks of shutdowns in 13 months.

Some workers have been advanced upwards of 400 hrs of holiday leave to keep them at home during shutdowns, things are very grim in manufacturing at the moment.

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Bottom line is if Company managers to profit (themselves short term) by reducing workers time and wages and use machines, there will be no customers to buy their products !

The world is in a bigger mess with finance than the last GFC.

Hang in there Tingy.

 

Gotta buy some more petrol to drive the Porsche, before price goes up again.

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Bottom line is if Company managers to profit (themselves short term) by reducing workers time and wages and use machines, there will be no customers to buy their products !

 

 

Another view of the same scenario is that if manufacturers find ways to automate drudge work, costs are reduced and employees are freed for use in more high value occupations.

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Another view of the same scenario is that if manufacturers find ways to automate drudge work, costs are reduced and employees are freed for use in more high value occupations.

My observation is that the higher up the chain you go , the less productive it becomes ; my son doing his first stint at teacher prac agrees with what I sent him...

 teaching.png

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Tazzie, we're heading way off the topic, but hey, this stuff is fun.

 

In a previous life, when I worked in corporate environments, I got to see this stuff up close and way too personal.  So often the guy (or girl) in the big corner office's contribution to enterprise success seemed to consist of saying "make it so!".

 

My own observation relates to the corporate phenomenon of "meetings".  (And yes, I have sat in meetings to discuss a future meeting.)  The likelihood of anything worthwhile emerging from a meeting is inversely proportional to the number of people attending.

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Best conclusion to a meeting is "decision delayed pending discussion at next meeting , date to be announced"

 

Not too far off topic of what's wrong in the world ; these comments should be welcomed in a well rounded environment of people from all walks of life (e.g. PFA).The collective wisdom can have a positive ripple effect . 

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As an IT consultant I've turned up at federal public service departments for meetings with two of us on one side of the table and 12 public servants on the other side. Often only one or two of them talk.

The project manager in me often counts the number of people at the table to determine the resource cost.

The best one I can remember is a meeting at Defence that probably cost the commonwealth approx $4,000 in salaries and consultant costs. The net outcome was agreeing that two of the attendees to call each other after the meeting to arrange another meeting :P

These are the same places that lock the stationary cabinet to save costs...

Recurring meetings are the worst. As well as change boards where no one has pre read the paperwork.

$$$$$¥¥¥€€€€€££££...down the toilet...

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And if you believe the above article then there is something seriously wrong.......................

 

I am awaiting confirmation on the GM statistics but I believe I will be told its a load of crapolla.........

 

This statement in itself is incorrect/false:

 

"Some car manufacturers moved their production over to China, General Motors and Cadillac are examples of this.  They are then shipped over in containers and unloaded at ports.  However they are now being told to put a big halt in their import into the U.S.A."

 

Cadillac production is for China consumption not US, Tim Lee stated that at the motor show - its amazing how someone can start a theory and have it spread as reality.

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It's not really that much of a new story actually.

 

Every time a manufacturer puts a business case for a new model/platform it requires a plan for manufacturing. The factories are generally set to manufacture to that plan regardless of business conditions and the marketing and distribution networks then have to think "creatively" to keep the supply chain moving. The payback for the model investment is based on units produced....wholesales and then dealer network retails are not the concern of engineering.

 

I agree that in some areas of the world there has been issues with demand since the GFC.....but in my time with 3 manufacturers I've seen this kind of thing for over 2 decades.

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Who did you work for Hounddub? My wife works for GM (Holden).............

 

GM operates on 60 days stock at dealers not as indicated in the article. She laughed at the article and the  Cadillac theory of manufacturing and exporting back to the US - no yank would buy a Chinese made Cadi........

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Mate, the local car industry is by no means a reflection of the the global market. Ive been with VW group in Asia, Bentley Motors of Asia and Pacific, Jaguar Cars global and Toyota APAC.

Whatever your wife's experience is no doubt correct at home, but stock levels around the world are bulging most of the time. VW are the worst Ive seen.

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Her role is beyond local borders............

I cannot comment on the companies you worked for other than the new Holden MD is ex VW, as is the IO Operations President. She basically said that from a GM point it's crap.

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So have you had anything to do with Mike Devereux VP Sales and Marketing (and after sales I believe) by any chance? My wife's ex local dotted line boss (and previous MD of Holden), her boss in IO is Lowell Paddock (I think thats how you spell it :)

 

No I wouldnt be asking question like that either ;)

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Another view of the same scenario is that if manufacturers find ways to automate drudge work, costs are reduced and employees are freed for use in more high value occupations.

Indeed, and this is empirically true as technology and productivity have been improving for hundreds of years, but there are more people employed now than there ever has been.

Essentially when something is automated it can be produced at lower cost. The cost saving are passed onto the consumers, who then have to spend less of their income to get the same amount of stuff. So they spend the savings from that on new things, which creates more jobs in different industries. Overall this is a positive process and that's why our living standards keep going up.

Meddling with this process is dangerous, but it's something governments love to do, because they think they are in control. But whenever a government gets involved, the cost goes up because they inevitably interrupt productivity increases to favour a particular policy outcome (ie, keep one specific type of worker protected from change and competition)

A reasonable person might ask how the price of a GPS navigator has fallen from a thousand dollars to a hundred, but the price for electricity has doubled. The answer is that one of those industries has incessant meddling and the other is left to get on with whatever it wants.

As for the unsold inventory - cars are big, that's all. The amount of inventory for many other products can be surprising. Oh, and while there are poor Chinese peasants, there's more 'rich' people in china than there are all people in Australia!

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