02D production date

[69Z28-RS]

Mark said:  in part....." ...  The guy that came in on Monday AM pulled the next days cowl tags with the new build week coded on them and started attaching them to the next firewall on the line.  ..." ...

I don't know what Mark intended, but this statement makes it sound as if the 'production week' was assigned during the actual build process right before the tag was applied to the car, and I don't think that is correct.   

The build week was 'estimated' prior to production initiation as part of the planning process.  The example Mark cited is not the reason a build week is incorrect.   The cowl tag information is coded into their system beginning with the order of the car, and the build week got coded into the data once the production was *planned*.

[Mark]

The body number was assigned when the order was accepted at the plant (were talking 69's here) but it may not have been scheduled for a particular build period at that time.  The tag was stamped once probably a week before the actual construction of a particular car was to take place.

Production was scheduled at least 1 week (maybe more) ahead to ensure all the required parts would be available at the plant to meet the requirements of the vehicles to be built that week (or day)  So a week (or so) ahead of actual start of assembly the 4560 cars that could be built in a week were scheduled and the parts needed to make them scheduled for delivery.  Chevrolet always drove production order and determined generally when in time a car would be built, Fisher scheduled that production based on part availability and construction constraints.  The cowl tags for those 4560 cars were stamped with all their info including the assembly week (which if done on a week by week basis would never need to be changed or even looked at when stamping out a batch of tags, and sometimes they just forgot to change it from one batch of 4560 cars to the next) and stuck them in boxes, or some kind of containers and sent to the Fisher plants scheduler.  The Fisher scheduler determined their actual production order on a day to day basis based on their physical constraints.  He would try to group like colors together to save time swapping out paint systems, but then he needed to space out convertibles no closer than 10 to 15 body numbers apart, vinyl top cars no closer than about 7 bodies apart, and anything else that took extra time to install had to be spaced out.  So he had 912 tags and UIOT sheets for cars to be built the next day (or a few days hence) given to him in some random order when he started, and when he was done they were all sorted out and reordered to be the most efficient for Fisher.  Similar to Chevy locking the cars in order, this is how fisher did the same thing for their ide of the plant.  The tags and UIOTs were delivered to the beginning of the line for installation on the firewall and off the body went down the line.

[69Z28]

That's a helluva lot of tampons...     

Just think for a moment...18 tampon making machines with the capability to produce up to 150,000 tampons in an 8 hour shift x 3 shifts x 5 days, add weekends, Saturday AND Sunday to that which was mandatory when orders of Walmart magnitude came in. Playtex only has the one plant that makes them....we stayed busy, none stop, even during breaks somebody filled in. The machines never stop, except holidays and weekends with no work load, and of course the massive crashes those machines can have. 

[bcmiller]

Well this topic took an interesting turn.

[69Z28]

Well this topic took an interesting turn.

Hi Brian...yeah it did, but you know a lot a people don't get that experience working with that kind of production. Whether its cars or tampons there is a lot going on during a production run of any kind and how the process works. I for one enjoy hearing how things work no matter what it is...good conversations ensue.

[bcmiller]

It was just an observation.

[69Z28]

It was just an observation.

And a good one too...I was catching up on topics I missed this past year and a half and found a topic that went off somewhat like this one did in Decoding/Numbers   http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=13772.0 It's great to read about these kind of experiences from others that seems to blend into our hobby in one way or another. Makes for some good reading.

[Mark]

Just think of the scheduling and parts control that went and continues to go into an assembly line as complex as building a car up from several thousand parts that all have to get on the right car at the exact time the body rolls by it assembly location.  The main line never stops unless its a real disaster.  Think of the main assembly line like the body of a 2 mile long centipede, with hundreds of pairs of legs.  Every part that gets added to the main body flows down those individual legs (feeder lines) towards the body.  For components that change from vehicle to vehicle they have to be placed on those feeder lines in a specific order to get to the front of the line just as the body they are supposed to go on or in arrives at that assembly station. 

Building cars is not a process where the line worker sees a car coming to his (or her) station that needs a blue steering wheel installed, and he runs off somewhere to get the correct wheel.  Its already on the rack ready to be picked and place on the car with a minimum of movement, and virtually no hunting around for it.  If a part needs to be assembled before it goes on or into the car, it is done either at the far end of the feeder line in a sub assembly area, or while traveling down the feeder line on its way to the car.  The amount of parts scheduling and material handling that goes on in these plants is incredible, considering most of it was done manually back in the day.  Its actually a wonder that cars came out of the plants with all of the parts that the customer actually ordered.

[X33RS]

My grandfather retired from Fisher Body, he had some funny stories.  If I remember right my father was telling me that he was a "door assembly" man.

My father was also friends with another guy named Roger in the tri-5 chevy club who retired from the Norwood plant in the mid 80's and I was lucky enough for him to take us there and take an entire tour of the plant with access to places normally off limits, back in about 1986 or 87, I can't remember the exact year but I do remember about a year later they shut that plant down.   I just remember is was so cool watching the cars roll through the assembly process, watching them drive the cars inside the plant, racing around, driving over rumble strips, squealing tires, revving the crap out of them, I can remember a guy standing there with a clip board with the car idling in front of him, revving the car to the moon, then jotting something down on the clip board, then doing it again.  The whole thing was a very cool thing to see.  Never forget it.

Edit:  Also if I remember correctly, getting back to my grandfather, when he worked at Fisher Body I think he worked at a Fisher plant that was out on Route 4 towards Fairfield and wasn't on the Norwood assembly plant property at that time.  I'll have to ask my father for clarification but it sounds like from John's description that Fisher Body and Norwood were connected or one in the same and the cars rolled through the wall for the assembly process after paint.   With that said then I guess at some point the 2 were consolidated sometime before 1967 to streamline the process.
   I need to test my fathers memory and see if he remembers where and what my grandfather did exactly, but I do remember driving by the building on Rt. 4 that my father used to tell me that was the old Fisher Body plant.  I would guess that was before they moved it to the Norwood property.
   Anyone else here old enough to have memory of this??

[Mark]

There was a Fairfield fisher body plant located adjacent to the railroad tracks right where the railroad tracks cross RT 4, north of Symmes Street and east of RT 4  It was built in 1948, and closed in 1988.  It was right where Bentley World Packaging is located today.  Don't know if any of the current building is part of the old plant or not, but it was 1.3M square feet in size.  Don't know what bodies they built there.  I would guess it was 15 miles NNW of the Norwood Plant.

This is a little writeup about the plant in the butler county history page.

Fisher Body operated in Fairfield Township and Fairfield from 1947 through 1988. Plans for the plant west of Dixie Highway (Ohio 4), north of Symmes Road and east of the railroad were announced by General Motors April 6, 1945, before the end of World War II. When it opened in September 1947 it was part of the Fisher Body Division, producing parts for GM vehicles. Plant expansions were started in 1954 and 1960, after which the complex included 1.5 million square feet of operations on 108 acres. Employment rose to the 4,200 to 4,500 range in the early 1950s and fell to 2,500 before the plant closed. After August 1984, it was known as the Hamilton-Fairfield stamping plant of the Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada Group (CPC). Nov. 6, 1986, GM announced corporate cutbacks which included the closing of 11 plants employing 29,000 workers. Operations at the Hamilton-Fairfield plant ceased Aug. 31, 1988, with about 100 GM personnel remaining until the end of December 1989 when the property was acquired by Panda Motors Corp., whose plans for its use never materialized. Panda placed the complex on sale in May 1992. During the lifetime of the plant, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (later Chessie and CSX) serviced the GM operation from its Wayne Yards, which was located just south of Symmes Road

[dale_z28]

I'd like to thank all who have contributed to this thread. I really enjoy the sidelines and even the subtle humor regarding tampon manufacturing (I, for one, have never considered the process. When I got my first real job in a grocery store we would trick each other into stocking them by referring to them as "candy bars").

While working at General Tire and Rubber (later GenCorp Automotive) in the various departments involved in molding/manufacturing Corvette body panels, I enjoyed learning about the industry. Just this last year my wife and I toured the Corvette Museum and assembly plant, both were very interesting and enlightening. One thing was impressed on me, every operator on the assembly line was a sort of "specialist" in the installation of their part of the production. WE on the other hand, are trying to be "expert" at the whole car, at least as it pertains to our personal vehicles. I am very thankful for all the knowledge we have combined here, and I than each of you for sharing.   

[jdv69z]

There was a Fairfield fisher body plant located adjacent to the railroad tracks right where the railroad tracks cross RT 4, north of Symmes Street and east of RT 4  It was built in 1948, and closed in 1988.  It was right where Bentley World Packaging is located today.  Don't know if any of the current building is part of the old plant or not, but it was 1.3M square feet in size.  Don't know what bodies they built there.  I would guess it was 15 miles NNW of the Norwood Plant.

This is a little writeup about the plant in the butler county history page.

Fisher Body operated in Fairfield Township and Fairfield from 1947 through 1988. Plans for the plant west of Dixie Highway (Ohio 4), north of Symmes Road and east of the railroad were announced by General Motors April 6, 1945, before the end of World War II. When it opened in September 1947 it was part of the Fisher Body Division, producing parts for GM vehicles. Plant expansions were started in 1954 and 1960, after which the complex included 1.5 million square feet of operations on 108 acres. Employment rose to the 4,200 to 4,500 range in the early 1950s and fell to 2,500 before the plant closed. After August 1984, it was known as the Hamilton-Fairfield stamping plant of the Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada Group (CPC). Nov. 6, 1986, GM announced corporate cutbacks which included the closing of 11 plants employing 29,000 workers. Operations at the Hamilton-Fairfield plant ceased Aug. 31, 1988, with about 100 GM personnel remaining until the end of December 1989 when the property was acquired by Panda Motors Corp., whose plans for its use never materialized. Panda placed the complex on sale in May 1992. During the lifetime of the plant, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (later Chessie and CSX) serviced the GM operation from its Wayne Yards, which was located just south of Symmes Road

The building is still there. It's been updated on the outside so it looks a little different than it did when it was Fisher. I believe it was a stamping plant. In fact, I think sheet metal parts stamped with an "H" were manufactured there.

[RS Copo]

My 609XXX vin, 02D COPO's BE 12 bolt is dated too late in Feb to have been built in Feb.The car must have been built at least a few days into March.I believe William thought it was assembled March 4th or 5th.Thanks for the good info,Mark.

[X33RS]

There was a Fairfield fisher body plant located adjacent to the railroad tracks right where the railroad tracks cross RT 4, north of Symmes Street and east of RT 4  It was built in 1948, and closed in 1988.  It was right where Bentley World Packaging is located today.  Don't know if any of the current building is part of the old plant or not, but it was 1.3M square feet in size.  Don't know what bodies they built there.  I would guess it was 15 miles NNW of the Norwood Plant.

This is a little writeup about the plant in the butler county history page.

Fisher Body operated in Fairfield Township and Fairfield from 1947 through 1988. Plans for the plant west of Dixie Highway (Ohio 4), north of Symmes Road and east of the railroad were announced by General Motors April 6, 1945, before the end of World War II. When it opened in September 1947 it was part of the Fisher Body Division, producing parts for GM vehicles. Plant expansions were started in 1954 and 1960, after which the complex included 1.5 million square feet of operations on 108 acres. Employment rose to the 4,200 to 4,500 range in the early 1950s and fell to 2,500 before the plant closed. After August 1984, it was known as the Hamilton-Fairfield stamping plant of the Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada Group (CPC). Nov. 6, 1986, GM announced corporate cutbacks which included the closing of 11 plants employing 29,000 workers. Operations at the Hamilton-Fairfield plant ceased Aug. 31, 1988, with about 100 GM personnel remaining until the end of December 1989 when the property was acquired by Panda Motors Corp., whose plans for its use never materialized. Panda placed the complex on sale in May 1992. During the lifetime of the plant, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (later Chessie and CSX) serviced the GM operation from its Wayne Yards, which was located just south of Symmes Road

The building is still there. It's been updated on the outside so it looks a little different than it did when it was Fisher. I believe it was a stamping plant. In fact, I think sheet metal parts stamped with an "H" were manufactured there.

You are correct, I just got ahold of my father and he told me it was a stamping plant for doors, seats, frames etc....My father said Hamilton, I said Fairfield, but shucks that's just about the same thing, haha.

[X33RS]

There was a Fairfield fisher body plant located adjacent to the railroad tracks right where the railroad tracks cross RT 4, north of Symmes Street and east of RT 4  It was built in 1948, and closed in 1988.  It was right where Bentley World Packaging is located today.  Don't know if any of the current building is part of the old plant or not, but it was 1.3M square feet in size.  Don't know what bodies they built there.  I would guess it was 15 miles NNW of the Norwood Plant.

This is a little writeup about the plant in the butler county history page.

Fisher Body operated in Fairfield Township and Fairfield from 1947 through 1988. Plans for the plant west of Dixie Highway (Ohio 4), north of Symmes Road and east of the railroad were announced by General Motors April 6, 1945, before the end of World War II. When it opened in September 1947 it was part of the Fisher Body Division, producing parts for GM vehicles. Plant expansions were started in 1954 and 1960, after which the complex included 1.5 million square feet of operations on 108 acres. Employment rose to the 4,200 to 4,500 range in the early 1950s and fell to 2,500 before the plant closed. After August 1984, it was known as the Hamilton-Fairfield stamping plant of the Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada Group (CPC). Nov. 6, 1986, GM announced corporate cutbacks which included the closing of 11 plants employing 29,000 workers. Operations at the Hamilton-Fairfield plant ceased Aug. 31, 1988, with about 100 GM personnel remaining until the end of December 1989 when the property was acquired by Panda Motors Corp., whose plans for its use never materialized. Panda placed the complex on sale in May 1992. During the lifetime of the plant, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (later Chessie and CSX) serviced the GM operation from its Wayne Yards, which was located just south of Symmes Road

Yep that's it.  My grandfather retired from there,  but my dad can't remember the year.