U.S. Automakers Boost Efficiency
Chrysler Group cut the labor hours it took to build a vehicle in North America by 6% in 2005, the biggest efficiency gain in an annual survey of automakers’ plants in the region.
The DaimlerChrysler unit and its Detroit-area rivals General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. each reduced the labor hours needed to build a vehicle from a year earlier, according to the widely watched Harbour Consulting Inc. survey released Thursday.
Efficiency declined at Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., although the Japanese companies retained their rankings as the most efficient.
Harbour’s report is used to evaluate manufacturing competitiveness. The study measures assembly, stamping and powertrain efficiency for companies that build vehicles in North America.
The U.S. Big Three “still have a ways to go to close that gap” with Japanese automakers, said Erich Merkle, an IRN Inc. auto analyst in Grand Rapids, Mich.
GM was the fourth-most-efficient automaker in North America last year, cutting the amount of labor it took to assemble its vehicles to 22.4 hours on average from 23.1 in 2004. Chrysler was fifth, improving to 23.7 hours from 25.2. Ford placed sixth at 23.8 hours, compared with 24.5 in 2004. It was the first time Chrysler’s efficiency surpassed Ford’s in the 18 years of the survey.
Nissan led the survey for the 12th straight year, taking 18.9 labor hours to assemble vehicles in North America, compared with 18.3 hours in 2004. Toyota was No. 2 at 21.3 hours, up from 19.5; Honda was No. 3 at 21.4 hours, up from 20.6.
Their Japanese rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp. was the least efficient of the surveyed automakers, taking 26.5 labor hours to build a vehicle, though that was down from 29.9 in 2004.
Harbour estimated that GM had an average pretax loss of $2,496 for the vehicles it made in North America last year; Ford had a per-vehicle loss of $590.
Nissan had a pretax profit of $2,249 a vehicle, the consulting company estimated, compared with $1,587 for Toyota, $1,215 for Honda and $223 for Chrysler.
Harbour said the productivity gap among North American automotive manufacturers was smaller than ever as quality advances drove improvements across the industry.
“The relative ranking of the six largest automakers is likely to change in the next couple of years, and the leaders could be anyone,” said Ron Harbour, the company’s president.
*
Bloomberg News and Reuters were used in compiling this report.
