I've had an opportunity to go back and skim through the previous pages and it appears to me you guys are on the right track. Keep up the good work!
This is good stuff here:
Quote:
Originally Posted by aerotruk63
Just got an email from a guy who's name seems to appear whenever ECL's are mentioned here's what he wrote.
Hi Norm,
Nice to hear from you. It's always good to hear from those interested in literature, codes etc.
The Exception Codes...generally two letters following an option number, are actually part of the RPO. In fact, an RPO number is incomplete without the exception letters. For example, L62AA is a complete RPO number because it completely defines the RPO.
L62 by itself is only part of the RPO because it just refers to a high performance Corvair 110hp engine but not what TYPE of 110hp engine...that is, whether it has the extra or deviation parts for its use on different models or combined with various other RPOs like with A/C, Powerglide, etc.
The exception letters have different meanings depending on the particular option they're used with, and were always changing as various models, options and option combination possibilities were introduced or canceled. Thus they can never be the same for different car lines, cars vs. trucks etc....
Thanks again for your interest,
Dave
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...as I mentioned, by the time I started those additional codes were no longer in use. I had noticed extra "blank" characters which looked like placeholders on our SPIDs but could not explain why they were there. Rather than re-doing the formatting it looks to me like they were just carried over and filled with dummy characters ("1"s, or "A"s, in our case).
Quote:
Originally Posted by cortcomp
There has been a lot of speculation on the printers used for this, some even speculating typewriters. I've read discussion across a lot of sites, and, from my tech experience, and knowing GM (why pay 1000 typists when you can spend 800 times that on a mainframe and some printers) i'm betting that this was the series used:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1403 |
This is good stuff, too. I do recognize that printer, although I hadn't thought about that in years. Just to expand a bit:
The build sheet/manifests were printed in the "Print office" (...naturally...) and then were distributed throughout the plant prior to the production shift by a courier from the Insepction/Reliability office. You might note the paper was "tractor driven" by the little holes on the side and sheets connected together - it was distributed in this form to the necessary spots like the beginning of the engine line, transmission pick, start of body shop, start of the chassis line, crossmember build, axle line, seat build (ie "cushion room"), tire and wheel, etc. Those individuals would tear off the individual sheets and hang them on the carrier as they chose the correct component (based on the broadcast code) and that started the "build sheet" down the line (the build sheet that is often found in the vehicle today). Technically they were supposed to be thrown away at the end of the line but often were left in place, or had already had the vehicle built up around them (and were trapped in place, like the seat shown above).
Additionally, there were some "special" operators that got a whole build manifest packet, left together, to assist them with their day. One example would be the guy that installed the M20 shift lever/boot (..."Banana" was his name). Prior to the shift he would sit at the picnic table, coffee and cigarette in hand, take his packet of build sheets and scan through every page, circling with his red crayon any "M20" equipped vehicles that were scheduled for the day. Based on this information he would build up the appropriate number of shift lever/boot/knob assemblies and hang them on his rack, and then seek out those vehicles by build sequence number to make his installation. Since he used hand tools he was not tied to a particular spot on the line via an air hose, so he could - and would -work as far up the line as he chose (all the way up to body drop). Another guy in a similar situation was the person that installed the U01 cab running lights: he needed to know which vehicles required his services and he did so via the build manifest. Those packets were also thrown away at the end of the day.
Sidebar: The other (negative) thing this accomplished was that it let the hourly assembler know how many M20 vehicles were being built per day, and he could discern if he was "overworked" per union standards and could write a formal grievance if he found this was the case. He also could count how many vehicles were being produced per hour or per day and would know if the line was running faster that the agreed upon rate (...which happened...).
K