RUMCars Forum
General Category => Off Topic Lounge => Topic started by: Chris Thomas on February 18, 2013, 11:59:02 AM
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I was sent this link
http://www.youtube.com/embed/nd5WGLWNllA?rel=0
It shows the New VW Factory in Dresden. An eye opener
Chris Thomas
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Must be those cheap labour rates and production costs that make such things impossible these days in the UK
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Must be those cheap labour rates and production costs that make such things impossible these days in the UK
That would be a surprise to the guys at my local Nissan plant. They think they are the most productive car plant in Europe, measured in cars per employee.
But no wood floors on the production line!
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I did tHink that an odd comment rusty - anyway why does dresden have cheap labour anyway ?
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Just ironic waffle. Cheap foreign labour rates and lower production costs are generally the reasons trotted out for the demise of and dearth of manufacturing industry in the UK and conversely the growth of such manufacturing in countries like China. It just struck me that this factory in Germany where labour rates are generally higher than the UK was a poke in the eye with a sharp stick for anyone who still thought the same.
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I bet the investment is worked out to maximize efficiency though.
All the British manufacturers failed to make the committed investment needed to pull this trick off. Under financed and unable to keep up, they fell by the wayside. The skill sets are still here for technical excellence but we seem unable to turn that into volume production without foreign management. So is it the fault of the 'bolshi' British worker or the ineffective management class that we fail?
It was so much simpler when we were the only people making stuff and Johnny Foreigner had to do what he was told or talk to a gun boat. (Case in point - Pirates in the Straits of Hormuz threatening our gas supplies. Back in the day the Royal Navy would be put in and the Rum ration served out with few questions asked afterwards over who's toes got trodden on). Funnily enough a large busy army is excellent training for good managers. It would seem second class Polytech --- sorry Universities --- are not. Yet the German nation manages the trick well enough without gunboats now, so we are doing something wrong.