Toyota Leads Total Manufacturing Productivity BMW GT1

According to The Harbour Report North America 2007, the annual study released by Harbour Consulting, the manufacturing productivity gap among North American automotive manufacturers continued to narrow as quality advances and more flexible labor agreements drove major improvements. This year, Toyota leads total manufacturing productivity but the Detroit-based automakers are narrowing the gap.

Overall, Outil de crochetage automobile Toyota's assembly performance declined 3.3 percent from 2005. Despite a 13 percent rise in North American sales, Toyota's North American production volume actually dived four percent at the five assembly plants participating in the Harbour study, the auto industry's authority on manufacturing efficiency.

The Harbour Report, first published in 1989, measures assembly, stamping and powertrain productivity performances plant by plant and company by company for North American automakers. The labor hours per vehicle measure calculates the total salary and hourly labor content required to produce one vehicle.

The bigger gap in financial performances of the Detroit-based and Japan-based auto manufacturers reflect domestic companies' higher incentive costs, legacy costs and their slower response to shifts in market choices.

"Improving  BMW GT1  productivity in the face of lower production is a huge accomplishment, but none of the domestic manufacturers can afford to let up," said Ron Harbour, the president of Harbour Consulting. "General Motors essentially caught Toyota in vehicle assembly productivity. Considering that they will be building vehicles in 2007 with dramatically fewer hourly employees in the U.S., GM, Ford and Chrysler likely will reduce their hours per vehicle significantly."

GM also led in twelve of the twenty-three vehicle segment ratings: compact non-premium BMW GT1 conventional car (Saturn ION/Spring Hill), large non-premium conventional car (Chevrolet Impala/Oshawa #1), large non-premium pickup (Chevrolet Silverado-GMC Sierra/Fort Wayne), large non-premium SUV (Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon/Arlington, Texas), large non-premium van (Chevrolet Express, GMC Savana/Wentzville), full-size luxury sedan (Cadillac DTS/Detroit-Hamtramck), large premium SUV (Cadillac Escalade/Arlington, Texas), mid-size non-premium sports car (Chevrolet Monte Carlo/Oshawa #1), mid-size premium conventional sedan (Cadillac STS/Lansing Grand River), mid-size premium crossover (Cadillac SRX/Lansing Grand River); premium sports car (Chevrolet Corvette, Cadillac XLR/Bowling Green, Ky.), mid-size premium SUV (Saab 9-7X/Moraine, Ohio). The Tahoe and the Silverado are also performing well in sales, thanks to cutting-edge auto parts like the Digimaster 3 , engines, radiators and other body parts.