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That analogy is only partially accurate. For instance, injection molding machines are pretty flexible these days, parts are almost exclusively drawn in CAD and
by smoyer 7y ago
That analogy is only partially accurate. For instance, injection molding machines are pretty flexible these days, parts are almost exclusively drawn in CAD and molds are commonly cut with EDM. Every injection molding house has to have the ability to maintain those molds too. So if you wanted auto manufacturers (or more likely one of their suppliers) to produce a plastic part, it could almost be hands off. Send them the CAD files and specifications, produce a short run with heavy QA and once they're started, you can almost have as many parts as you need.
Modern cars have such a huge variety of parts with varying materials and characteristics that I'd guess almost all the ventilator parts could be out-sourced. I don't know enough to say what the specialized skills or parts could be but let the ventilator manufacturers build those, do final assembly and QA and you'd at least increase production to some degree. My guess is that the quoted manufacturer has ramped up their existing parts manufacture beyond their ability to do final assembly were Daimler to provide more parts.
- lqet 7y agoYou are assuming (edit: actually you aren't, see below) that the car manufacturers are producing these parts themselves. It is a lot more complicated for Daimler to produce plastic parts for ventilators (for example) if small plastic parts in Daimler cars have been produced in China for the last 25 years and delivered just-in-time to the assembly line in Stuttgart.
- helij 7y agoEurope is full of plastic moulding factories, big and small. Capability is there. Not everything is made in China. My friend has a small plastic moulding factory back home with 15 machines and his father is a tool maker. They themselves could produce 50,000 plastic parts a day if needed.
- smoyer 7y ago"(or more likely one of their suppliers)" I don't think I was assuming that ... but your point is valid. Certain car parts have indeed been the same for a long period of time. You'd certainly want to avoid the suppliers that are resistant to change or that have historically taken many iterations to get to the point where they can produce 10s and 100s of millions consistently. There are however manufacturers that specialize in smaller runs and more precision (two within 20 minutes of where I type this which is NOT considered a traditional manufacturing area). I'd be willing to bet those managing the supply chain for the car companies know exactly which type of company is which (where do their engineering departments have short-run prototypes made?)