They're all just jealous.

Kidding... kidding....

 

I'm also a Union member of Laborers Local 310 out of Cleveland Ohio and I stand very proud of my Union and stand up very strong for Unions. This country needs them!

 

The vehicles certainly didn't assemble themselves. Someone had to see the errors in question. Why wasn't anything said?

Here's the catch though with your scenario - I'm sure the worker in question installed seats and consoles in several other Town Cars that same day. And I'm sure, sooner or later, he/she probably picked up on the fact that at least one car (and maybe more) on his/her watch rolled out with two bolts and one nut holding the seat to the floorpan, instead of two bolts and two nuts. Why wasn't anything said?

"It's not my place..." Nevermind that it results in a crap product that makes everyone from the corporate execs in the glass office to the guys in the plant to the sales and service staff at the dealer look like a dumbass to the consumer, that particular assembler's end is upheld.

And regardless of whoever put what part where, why wasn't this system tested for proper functionality before the vehicle left the plant? At the dealer, I looked at the vehicle for ten seconds and saw something was amiss. Or maybe it was tested, but the tester said "Whoops, this ain't working...well, it's not my place..."

Whatever happened to accountability for one's actions?

How do you figure? That's a rather poor comparison; a parking brake is tested easily - set it and see if it holds the car. Release it and see if it releases freely. What's so difficult about that?

It's comforting to see that such high quality standards are maintained...inexperienced new guys or inexperienced substitutes performing a job that they aren't qualified for, missed checks here and there, the new guy in the case of the seat incident above not knowing that a seat requires two bolts and two nuts for retention to the floor...and the whole time, regardless of who's qualified and who ain't, nothing has been said about known errors that slipped through the cracks.

I agree, it's not. However, as the vehicle rolls down the line, aren't there redunancies in place to ensure the right parts go on the right vehicle at the right time?

The Mustang brake incident I related is one thing, how about the Grand Marquis that had leather seating in the front, and cloth seating in the rear. Somewhere along that line, somebody installed the leather seats in the front. Further on down that line, someone installed cloth seating in the rear. And somewhere, between when that second seat was installed and when the vehicle was loaded onto rail or truck or however they get to wherever they're going, someone saw that there was an obvious mismatch. Why wasn't anything said?

Maybe I'm misdirecting my comments towards the UAW and it's workers. Bottom line - I want to know why grevious errors slip through the cracks without no one saying a thing before the vehicle leaves the plant. Period.

<post snipped here and there due to length>

 

Regardless of whether they're union or not, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW, Audi, Mitsubishi, building ten cars a day or 10,000 a month, this is a huge, unacceptable policy that needs to be dealt with immediately. Granted, I've never worked on an assembly line, but this mentality will come back to burn us all alive.

Okay, that's fine and dandy. I understand that cars are cruising down that line constantly, and stopping the line over a concern on one car would be detrimental to business - the plant has an obligation to build (X) number of units a day, and stopping the line can affect that.

But, what about the guy at the end of the line that does the final inspection? What's his excuse?

Again, redunancies...what ain't caught at one point, I'm hoping that it'd be caught at another, and another, and another, and certainly before the vehicle is deemed fit for shipping - especially with an obvious error like mismatched seating.

Somehow, I have a difficult time believing that even the dumbest rail hand or truck driver (or whoever secures them to transporters on their way to dealers) would secure a vehicle to a rail car or a trailer in a manner that'd visably tweak body panels out of alignment. As badly as these were out of alignment, to do that while securing the vehicle, well, on a Navigator, it's not possible, at least not without breaking the glass or ripping the rear gate from the body. Well, let's say in a strange world that it's possible, but ask yourself realistically - Would it happen? And if it did, would - should - it happen more than once or twice?

 

well, I'm glad Quintin thinks he knows everything as just being a guy behind a counter at a service desk at a Mercury lincoln dealership. He obviously has no idea what it's like to be on the line as these guys do putting cars and trucks together.

My uncle just retired from Ford 3 weeks ago after 30 years in, building engines for our F-150's, he worked very hard on the line for Ford, and no where are people as lazy as Quintin makes them out to be

 

With all due respect, what little you are due, you discredited yourself from providing any meaningful input with this stupid comment:
Granted, I probably don't have a lot of room for the smack I talk, like most folks in this thread; but I got a helluva lot more than you do. So I'd speak softly if I were you.

 

I don't think Quintin was calling them lazy per se, but they definitiely have a huge lack of accountability. And as far as the Mustang brake issues goes, for example, I think it's a poor way to build a vehicle so that in essence, "the left knows not what the right does".

 

I was talking about Construction trade Unions on that comment I made. all Union Construction trade members must go through a 4 year apprenticeship school program.

Non-Union does not, which make them Un-skilled..nuf said

 

That's fine and dandy.

Just don't take any offense when I don't take anything you say seriously, based on other dumbass things you've said and posted in the past.

 

Being a UAW or a Ford employee is not relevant to the reality of unions and how they continue to get smaller and smaller. It would not hurt any of the big 3 to cut lose the unions and it would actually make them more competitive, produce better quality vehicles and retain jobs here in America.

The fact of the matter is the big 3 will continue to move as much work as possible across the border to remain at least competitive. Their failure to do so will allow them to continue losing market share to the other companies, such as Toyota, who are more competitive and build better quality vehicles. Reality is reality and no matter how much some people may wish it away there is nothing you can do about it…

 

It is NO excuse that a “new” guy or “substitute” missed something and thus the reason a product went out as a defect.

If that is truly Ford and their Unions position then I know I will surly purchase a Toyota truck for my next truck since they do NOT allow for such ignorant excuses. Toyota is a true lean manufacture, of which Ford is not, and has processes, procedures and standards in place to insure such stupid mistakes are not made.

Ford, if there any kind of a world class manufacture has processes, procedures, and standards that should NEVER allow for such stupid mistakes as only installing 3 out of 4 bolts for a seat assembly. See Ford is not a lean manufacture, one of the reason they are failing so bad in the market, they think they are “kind of” lean but they really aren’t. It’s sad that a company such as Toyota, which is viewed as foreign, has to teach Ford how to manufacture a product correctly…

 

You know we'll never really know how the Toyota assemblers do their job, as well as their "competitive processes", because we have no insiders here. This is an F150 site. Maybe if they made the F150 the Toyota plant you'd be happier?

You continue to babble on about the union, but it's all been said before, weeks, months, years, decades ago, so is there any reason for the continuous bagging of them?

I think not, but who really cares? I am ready to see some more threads of Mattineer's life experiences.

 

Doesn't Toyota's line shut down when a problem is noticed? If you were under a spotlight for making an error, you wouldn't make many. Its not unions causing bad workmanship, I think its accountability.

 

There are thousands and thousands of non-union workers working on government contracts. Law requires they get the prevailing union wage. Now if the Unions were to become extinct what would happen to these wages? So even though those non-union workers don't like the Unions they RELY on the Unions to keep those wages up there. If the Unions were to go under there would even be less job security. Wages will plummet. Everyone is affected by those wages if they disappear. Do you think a $10 per hour auto worker is gonna hire a plumber, roofer or electrician? What about stores and restaurants? I was in the suburbs of Pittsburgh this past May. It looks like a war zone. Everything was torned down, falling down or boarded up. It was sad to see knowing that it once was a thriving industry. Those non-union auto assembly line workers make pretty good money because of the Unions. But believe me there are people willing to do their jobs cheaper. No one is safe.

 

You are the jackas* that says all this crap on here about Ford, then goes out and buys a Ford??

what u need is a nice Jap piece of junk called a Toyota which I'd be embarrassed to even drive any of there trucks as there girlie trucks with a Jap name on it..nuff said...

Go buy ur Jap truck and shut up man