The build date project

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by 402Bowtie

Some questions for both of you:
1) The sequence number is in on the top left of the build sheet, above the date, correct?

2) At what point is the build sheet printed with the serial number? It seems like the serial number would have to be included fairly early in the process or otherwise perhaps printed on the build sheet after some assembly has been completed?

3) Pretend I have two build sheets. One is sequence number 17647 (w/ s/n 2Z120845) and the other is sequence number 17699 (w/ imaginary s/n 2Z120897) and they both show a 11/12/71 build date. I think you are saying that is 100% safe to assume that sequence numbers in between those two were built on 11/12/71. However, at some point along the way, one of the sequence numbers could have been assigned a serial number outside the range of 2Z120845 and 2Z120897, or at least in a non-consecutive manner. Is that correct?

4) For 100 consecutive sequence numbers, how many of those trucks are likely to have consecutive serial numbers?

Maybe I'll start trying to include sequence numbers. Any other sources for the sequence number besides the build sheet? Firewall? SPID?

Keith would be the main one to Verify these Questions.
That pertain (Directly to These Trucks)

I will give my input from the experience,
I had at another Auto manufacturing plant from 1992-2010.

Yes, it was a foreign plant and there is a 30-year gap.
Somethings will still apply.

I thought I knew a lot about vehicles till I worked there.

I had no idea how they put these together the way they do.

Okay First question: I will say Yes.

When I worked in the Paint Plant,
I worked in the sealer department.
One of my jobs was to put (tape) the
Broadcast (Build) sheet on the front door.

The vehicle had just moved thru the Bake oven after being Phosphate(Dipped) coated.

I paid attention to the Serial Numbers (Because I am a Car Guy)
They would be some missing every once in awhile.
I asked WHY?
They would get pulled to the side in Body shop/ stamping plant.
Then they got filtered back in.

Okay keep that train of thought.
I did not work where the were painted.
But I did sneak in there to see what was going on.

So now When I worked in the Trim section.
I seen the final results of the paint Plant.

For 1 or 2 of the years of employment I worked in Zone 1
I also tape a Brodcast (Build) sheet on the door when the car dropped down from paint.
Because they had to remove the other one to Paint the door.

This is where they dropped straight in from being painted.
There was a big (Corral) area Before that,
This is where the cars got sorted out,
as Keith spoke of. Because of trim levels and options etc.

As a technician , A person had more parts to put on an AC truck verses a Non/Ac truck.
If you had to build 4 of these Ac/Trucks in a row you would have to shut the line off.
Which stops Production.

So, this type of sorting (Messed the order of the serial # Up).

With my insight of this experience, I had at that plant.

The cab and frame would be the biggest factor of the order of this situation.

Because the serial # would be determined then.

If something happened after that,
It may change the sequence number.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Worked at an Assembly plant for 17 years.

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

I did not work where the were painted.
But I did sneak in there to see what was going on.

40 years for me; across about a dozen different GM assembly plants (Flint, Pontiac, Ft Wayne, St Louis, Janesville, Oshawa, Fremont, Arlington, Silao, Wentzville, Mishawaka, Hamtramck come to mind), three or four pre-production shops and one skunk works (that I can't talk about).

I've been thinking about writing a thread about "How I got so Smart", or something like that, but in a nutshell: it's "sneaking".

Even before I started my engineering curriculum at Flint I had a stint in Personnel. One of my jobs was to deliver the mail. As a result, one learns not only where all the "monuments" are in the plant, but three or four ways to get there: front ways, back ways, sneaky ways, etc.

While you are sneaking around you are getting to know folks and learning about their jobs, and learning about the process, by osmosis.

Even after that, as an "adult" when I would go to these various other plants for new model launch, I would ask my plant host to show me around ("...show me where you put the VINs on", or "...show me the paint body bank", or "take me out to paint repair") to further my understanding. They were happy to show off their place and I was genuinely interested (that is, I was not being manipulative to curry favor).

Or - I would sneak around myself. I remember the first time I went to Wentzville they pretty much got me through the door and said "ok - we'll see you in a week". I had been there for about 10 minutes before they cut me loose to fend for myself, so - after finding where I was going to be working - I spend the rest of my time watching trucks get built and wandering around.

There is no shortage of things in a vehicle assembly plant to capture your imagination, if you are a car guy.

K