THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606010132
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Talk of the Town
TYPE: Opinion
LENGTH: 69 lines
Ford Motor Co.'s workforce in Tidewater rolled into '95 with a sterling productivity record and an assignment plum: Build Ford's first redesigned F-150 pickup truck.
Since then, Norfolk assembly has slipped out of the truck industry's Top 10 in productivity - thanks to the new F-150.
The Norfolk plant ranked 11th among 38 truck plants measured by the Harbour Report of manufacturing productivity for the North American auto industry. Norfolk assembly placed 5th in '94 when it built the old version of the full-sized pickup.
The survey, widely watched in the auto industry, was released last week by Harbour & Assoc. of Troy, Mich. It compares hours worked by all employees in assembly plant to the number of vehicles produced.
The most efficient truck plant in Canada, Mexico or the United States: Nissan Motor Corp. needed 2.05 workers per truck at Smyrna, Tenn.
Norfolk assembly used 3.3 workers per truck, up from 3.12 workers a year ago. Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant near Louisville, assembling the old version of the F-150, needed 2.9 workers per truck.
``Norfolk used to be the best truck plant around,'' said manufacturing consultant Jim Harbour, the Harbour in Harbour & Assoc. ``It's not so much the plant's fault. Ford just had a lot of features added to the new truck. It takes a lot more work to add the extra content.''
While Nissan's Smyrna plant was the most efficient (on cars, too, using 2.09 workers per Sentra), it wasn't the most profitable.
``The Japanese manufacturers have very high efficiency, very high quality and very little profit,'' Harbour said. ``It's because of all the things they're adding to their cars and trucks. They're giving us all the high technology in the world - high tech transmissions, breakaway mirrors, heated mirrors.''
``It's the same thing Ford is doing with its new truck,'' Harbour said. ``Unfortunately, the American public is sitting back and saying, `I didn't ask for this, but if you want to give it to me, fine.' Now, the car companies are trying to figure how out to take some of the content out and bring the costs back down.''
Movie mania: Ellis-Gibson Development Group and Commercial Real Estate Services of Virginia Beach plans to develop a 24-screen movie complex and shopping center in Hampton near I-64 and Hampton Roads Center Parkway. A shopping center anchored by a huge theater complex would be a Virginia first, city officials said.
Disaster planning: What happened to Oklahoma City businesses disrupted by the federal building explosion has helped inspire a regional conference Friday in Newport News. Specifics on the disaster planning conference appear in our Calendar on Page 3, although some details omitted there are worth mentioning here.
Newport News officials say a number of Oklahoma City firms went out of business after the blast disrupted their computer operations. City officials say the concentration of military bases makes an accidental bomb explosion on the magnitude of Oklahoma City's possible in Hampton Roads.
Endview mall: Plans for Endview mall, the upscale shopping center planned in northern Newport News by Mall Developers of New York, are another sign of Williamsburg's growth. Who'd shop at Endview?
While residents throughout the Peninsula are expected, the primary shoppers would be Williamsburg and Yorktown area residents, the developers said.
Average per capita income in that stretch of the Peninsula is $23,500, the highest in Hampton Roads. The developers projected the average would reach $27,100 when the mall opens in '98. Endview would cover 750,000 square feet and rank as the sixth largest mall in Tidewater.
Technofix: First Union National Bank of Florida and SunTrust Bank of Miami are cooperating in a pilot program to see if an inkless fingerprinting system will help reduce check fraud. by CNB