Halewood the truth

The way Land Rover ties up suppliers you can bet your bottom dollar that if the problem is down to DHL they will be paying LR unbelievable amounts of compensation for the production line grinding to a halt.
On a visit to Solihull a few years back we were told that if there was a stoppage on the line due to a smash on the motorway casing delays to deliveries - suppliers who had trucks stuck for hours started helicoptering in pallet loads of parts as it was cheaper than stopping the line - it's one reason why the Lode Lane plant still has it's own sport's ground - it doubles up as a heliport. Back then it was reckoned that 1 hour of stopped production cost more than £1million...............
3 years ago at Southampton Containerport a gantry crane collapsed over one of the ships on the berth, unfortunately Honda in Swindon had to close down because the factory had "just in time" delivery parts onboard the ship. Ships today are not just a mode of transport, they are floating warehouses and any delay due to breakdown or bad weather can have huge cost implications for the ship's owner.

When I last visited Porsche, I was told that when a car starts its way down the line, 80% of the parts it will use have not yet arrived at the factory. Makes you wonder what the blood pressure of the logistics managers is like.

(14-10-2011 10:08am)mark_n Wrote:  There are 1500 people from DHL working at Halewood and they are responsible for getting the right parts for each car to the line on time. All fine, providing the parts are there to begin with. Plus there are a lot of contract people among them and an outstanding pay issue. Hardly the way to create good will.

It makes sense to have DHL involved if their responsibility includes getting the parts to Halewood as well. Their responsibility then extends all the way from dispatch at myriad suppliers around the world all the way to the crates and racks behind the assembly line workers. Sounds a great idea until you find it doesn't work, as here.

Truth is, we don't know where the problem is. If the 5 door pressings are out of spec due to damaged tooling, that will torpedo 5 door production. If, for whatever reason, Xenons are late or sub-par or any of the thousands of other parts, that will mess things up as well. It's a wonder any cars get built.

That said, the grey 5 door queuing in Hampstead High Street while I was waiting to upgrade to an iPhone 4S looked great. To anyone thinking of cancelling, don't, you will be bound to regret it.

Not going to ask why you were queing for an iPhone

Because he cannot use his Blackberry?

At least there is no production problem with the iphone 4s, well at least for now.

Iphone 4s is what we call "a pig with makeup. Under the makeup its still a pig"

But it works, its easy to use unlike any other smartphone I have owned (especially Blackberries and most Nokias) and it looks good. A bit like comparing the BMW pig in make-up with an RRE I suppose

You lay off my BMW

An Iphone 4s is still an iPhone 4 with makeup. Marketing is king! I did not see one single killer feature why I would upgrade from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4s. Its a pig with makeup...

Its especially a pig when you upgrade to IOS 5, took me 6 hours, and ended losing all my photos and two films i had.