[72projectbird]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

There are; for example - most plants do not build in VIN order. Norwood, Flint, Pontiac MI, all had accumulators (body banks) between the body shop and paint, and then again between the paint shop and trim. This allows for the shuffling of builds to allow for work load leveling downstream (ie, can't have too many A/C cars in a row, can't have to many tripowers in a row, can't have too many manual trans cars in a row) or for extended repair. Bodies can be shuttled off to the side (or placed in the aisle) in the event of missing major components - like a special engine - or if the chassis has been damaged and the build has to be restarted.

[I can't speak to if Lordstown was set up this way. Fremont is an example of a plant not set up this way, and built straight through.]

Think of it like writing checks: you pull the checks sequentially (that is - the serial portion of the VIN) but they don't necessarily clear the bank that way.

Cars can be completed off the final line but then shuttled around the back lot for various repairs - paint repairs or heavy repairs (axle swaps, motor swaps, even frame swaps). That delays the shipping further. We would even lose vehicles back there, only to be found at model change when the repair volume was worked down. By then we had already built a replacement vehicle to make up for the lost unit.

Lastly - there is some fuzz around the reported dates. I know for a fact that the documented ship date on my '87 pickup is off by a day because I was there and drove it to the shipping building myself.

K

I always enjoy your insight on this stuff. Its awesome to learn from someone who was actually there.

Btw, an 87 V10 4x4 short bed with a whopping 67 original miles on it just sold on BaT for 151k. Who would have ever thought?