Got this message today from a lad on another none LR forum i use. Might shed a little light on things. I have probed for more info!
"Hey bud, working at the plant where they build these, i can tell you they have been having a few problems, they just werent ready for the number of orders they have recieved for the car and is in very high demand. They projected around 75,000 a year to sell, but are getting orders of more like 140,000, which is double of what they were prepared for. Its also down to some of the suppliers are having trouble with keeping up aswell.
Id hold tight, they do look stunning, specially in grey."
(24-10-2011 07:24pm)ED209 Wrote: Got this message today from a lad on another none LR forum i use. Might shed a little light on things. I have probed for more info!
"Hey bud, working at the plant where they build these, i can tell you they have been having a few problems, they just werent ready for the number of orders they have recieved for the car and is in very high demand. They projected around 75,000 a year to sell, but are getting orders of more like 140,000, which is double of what they were prepared for. Its also down to some of the suppliers are having trouble with keeping up aswell.
Id hold tight, they do look stunning, specially in grey."
a further update (slightly edited so as not to reveal source)
"The accident what happened has it slowed ithings down a little bit, after HSE and all the rest investigated the accident and the tragic loss we were given the go ahead to carry on, but safety for workers are pretty high right now and no shortcuts will be tolerated..
There have been problems with the suppliers for dashboards,steering racks and the front grilles, only because of the number of orders, like the plant they were not ready for so many orders.
The problem with the sideframe you mentioned That die is being worked on round the clock to rectify the issue, its a very complex operation on trying to rectifying the problem. If one thing is changed, something somewhere is affected due to unpredictability of which way the steel will react/stretch/flow when pressed.
At the moment them side panels are hand finished so the company is losing alot of money on the labour work aswell, every sidepanel hand finished. As soon as that issue os fixed it will make a huge difference in production rate.
But the truth is, even with the above faults, if the orders were as projected around 70,000 there would have been no issues, but at 140,000 (double of what was projected) its a different ball game and IMO in my eyes the plant is doing pretty well at the rate they are making them in my eyes as a worker there. But as a running business i can also fully understand that it isnt good enough, and so the foremen tells us. "