Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

Post by speedgoose » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 8:22 PM UTC

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #166

blackguardx wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also just completely dropped a feature - radar - because they couldn't get parts for it. I'm not sure other manufacturers would be able to do that either due to internal processes or being able to risk their reputation.

Indeed - not many manufacturers could get away with Tesla's strategy of charging money for features that are in Alpha state, to put it charitably (e.g. Autopilot).

Post by hef19898 » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 8:23 PM UTC

da_chicken wrote: post #163

whiteboardr wrote: post #4

@kliment summarized the why pretty well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26931498 Curious if this is true for all manufacturers.

The "religious reasons" he's talking about are "zero inventory" or "JIT inventory" pioneered by Japanese auto makers in the 80s and 90s. By optimizing inventory management and understanding demand for your product, you can ensure you don't have excess inventory on-site (meaning you don't have money invested in product parts you can't sell and have to pay taxes on). It's the system that virtually every manufacturer (a…

Post by beachy » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 8:25 PM UTC

teeray wrote: post #158

hristov wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all this "simple" car may end up being more expensive. Doing a lot of the things the old mechanical way requires a lot of labor and labor is expensive nowadays. Having to use turning wires and vacuum tubes for instrument clusters, and a bunch of pull wires for controls... Not only would that be expensive it would require skills and equipment long lost today. Oh and the wind shield wipers -- it is possible to…

> cars used to break down much more often and require much more skilled maintenance. Yeah, but “skilled maintenance “ was an easy skill. There could only be a handful of things wrong if it didn’t start: e.g. no spark, no fuel. In the case of no spark, you check the plug, see if it’s dirty, change it if so; check the distributor, maybe the points are bad; check the coil or condenser… yeah there were things to check, b…

Post by da_chicken » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 8:26 PM UTC

j-bos wrote: post #169

da_chicken wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "religious reasons" he's talking about are "zero inventory" or "JIT inventory" pioneered by Japanese auto makers in the 80s and 90s. By optimizing inventory management and understanding demand for your product, you can ensure you don't have excess inventory on-site (meaning you don't have money invested in product parts you can't sell and have to pay taxes on). It's the system that virtually every manufacturer (a…

My understanding is that JIT, as performed by Toyota, takes into account the differences in difficulty of sourcing different inventories. If this is true, one would expect that Toyota faced shortages later than other manufacturers. Does anyone have a source proving or disproving this?

Post by ashtonkem » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 8:28 PM UTC

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #85

hristov wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all this "simple" car may end up being more expensive. Doing a lot of the things the old mechanical way requires a lot of labor and labor is expensive nowadays. Having to use turning wires and vacuum tubes for instrument clusters, and a bunch of pull wires for controls... Not only would that be expensive it would require skills and equipment long lost today. Oh and the wind shield wipers -- it is possible to…

That maybe true, but my anecdotal evidence is the opposite. > cars used to break down much more often and require much more skilled maintenance. My '78 John Deere 4640 (not a car I give you that) if it breaks down, I can fix it. If I cannot I can order the part. If I cannot, I can have the part made within a week. None of that is possible with a 2021 6145M. If it breaks, I have to sit and wait for JD to bless me with…