nswanberg

I was a PM planner at Rawsonville for three years. MAXIMO is a good program once you figure it out. Not much help in the system for learning it but it is a powerful program. I understand GM and Toyota North America use it as well. While I was a PM PPlanner I learned that PM stands for Pretend Maintenance that Prevents Manufacturing in your area. Much of the paper work is the result of trying to standardize procedures for similar equipment across plants. Makes sense in the long run. If you can get the first line salaried employees to view MAXIMO as a tool they can use to request modifying the PM requirements and procedures to maximise the PM bang for the bang for the buck you can help optimize your PM program. I had a vision for it. One thing I think is going to hurt us in the long run is "order on request" repair parts inventory management. The beanies are over estimating the repair parts inventory carrying costs. It got lumped in with production parts. As far as I could tell there were stategic goals that were contradictory and never resolved by corporate uppper level management. If you do not keep "show stopper" repair parts on hand that is just what happens - the show stops, production stops, workers go home with pay, and then assembly plants shut down. Rest asssured an executive level manager is going to get a bonus because he met the strategice objective of reducing inventory, however, it happened while increasing costs. "Cost accounting is your number one enemy in manufacturing." Good luck!

By some of the logic I have encountered upon reading this thread if tax rates went to zero the budget deficit and the national debt would disappear. Now we all know that makes no sense. A progressive tax rate is fair. When you are wealthy it is so much easier to make money than when you have to work for the wealthy. With the Bush tax cuts in place I do not think the wealthiest 5% are paying their far share of taxes and neither do a lof them! We are way past the point where tax increases will hurt the economy far less than the continued increases in deficit spending. Obama wussed out for the sake of his "social agenda" when he could have demonstrated genuine leadership and told the republicans to go to hell. But then what would you expect for a guy that smokes and praises Michael Vick. With democrats you get tax and spend. With republicans you get borrow and spend. It is a no win situation. i think I might immigrate to Canada you know eh? The republican party will not be happy until all of us poor working folk are lined up outside their doors hoping to clean their toilets for 50 cents an hour. George W. Bush came to office with a personal agenda that has compromised our nation and because of that I will never ever trust the moneyed interests of the republican party. If you have to work for a living you got to vote a straight democratic ticket. How is Sara Palin's happy changy show working out?

I pledge allegiance To the corporations of America And against the republic That they oppose One nation United is pursuit of profits With liberty and justice Determined by corporate needs

Labor is not going to get anywhere in the US until the trade laws are straightened out. Wall Street and our politicians are profiting from sending jobs overseas and none of our political leaders are even talking about unfair trade anymore. It was not the consumer that demanded doors be opened to Mexico, India and China, it was Wall Street. Now that we have officially elevated the corporation to the status of citizen by allowing unlimited political campaign spending we are going to fall even further behind. Citizens now serve the corporation rather than the corporations serving the citizenry. Thank you George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. I still hear the sucking sound. Had enough of NAFTA yet?

I own a 2001 Focus. I believe the 2001 is the most recalled car in the history of the planet. Still ours has never had us walking. 170,000 miles and still running. The number 2 son has been beating the hell out of it for two years delivering pizzas. We can throw front brake pads on it with our eyes closed now. We have a 2009 Focus as well. it does everything it is supposed to do well. Has never had a reason to go back to the dealership other than me getting into an accident with it during the first month of ownership. I am weary of the European Focus that is coming. That never seems to work - think Contour/Mondeo and Mercury Mistake. If they made a wagon version of the current Focus I would be buying another one. Not making a wagon is just the Ford brain trust way of making you pay bigger bux for an Edge.

"Cost accounting is your number 1 enemy in manufacturing."

How big of a paycut would we all of had to take for everyone to keep their jobs? Is there even an answer to that question? The root of the problem is our trade laws. Free trade is only fair trade for Wall Street and executive managers not us Main Streeters. To bring wealth building manufacturing jobs back we are going to have to swallow two tier wages especially in parts plant manufacturing. The only way I will accept it is if there is a provision for second tier wage earners to move to a full wage assembly plant through attrition. It might mean some people will have to move but at least they will get up to the full wage sooner and in order of company seniority. If we do not have this provision it means many of us will be working along side second class Ford workers. Without a provision for advancement to full wage we will not be a One Goal One Plan One Team company.

Am I the only Ford employee that thought it would have made sense to build the Mustang and the Ranger at Wixom? Both have rear wheel drive platforms and could have shared many components. Together they would probably always provide two full shifts of production. I never worked at Wixom but know a few people that did. Seems to me it was a quality workforce that was compliant, flexible, committed and showed up when they were supposed to. I would not doubt that more money was earned by Ford at Wixom than at any other Ford facility - ever. Closing the highest quality plant in the Ford system sure sends the wrong message to me.

Ronald Raygun Zap was the best president Japan ever had. He never even understood his own economic policies. It never should have been called "supply economics" or "trickle down economics". He should have called it trickle out economics because that is what has happened to our jobs in America ever since he was president.

First training goes. Then PM goes. Then your plant goes. At least Local 900 had two plants.

You can not have seniority across plants. The churning would cause chaos in manufacturing. When a tradesman is transferred from one unit to another and enters with his company seniority or even a leveling date it creates seniority rights issues that our contract language was expressly crafted to avoid. When a tradesman displaces employee seniority within a unit it creates resentment among his new co-workers and you can not make it happen with no complaints no matter how many hogs you cut. The biggest problem is that we all know none of us can walk into a new facility and be safely functional without the training, help and support of our new co-workers. If there is resentment because of seniority rights issues it creates an unsafe, dangerous and hazardous situation for the worker that has been transferred as well as for the facility he has been transferred to. If an injury occurs on the job to the transferred employee it is the fault and responsibility of management for not following the contract. I am sure the brain trusts in the Office of General Counsel have reviewed these transfers and approved all of them. On second thought maybe the lawyers have already been advised by the bookies that now run Ford Peace be with all of us. NS