What strikes me is the difference/care/love/fanaticism in the engine assembly today versus the slapping together of an engine in the plant. Awesome just to watch them slam pistons in.
Obviously we want more out of the engine but still.
Coincidentally this popped up just now in my wife’s Instagram dealy.
Haha, I saw that part of the video- the operator was launching a ring compressor on and whacking the piston in with a dead blow without even looking at it.
There is a lot more precision in today's automation systems for sure, but I sometimes have to wonder if it's all necessary. I've seen companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars extra on systems, inspections, etc that really don't even seem all that necessary, just because a quality engineer said to do it. Is there logic behind it, absolutely. Could it be resolved if you could trust your operators more? Yes. I can automate anything you want, but it costs a lot of money to do so, and someone always ends up paying for it (the end consumer). I would not be surprised if ~10% of a vehicle's cost of production was the costs of operator hand-holding systems integrations. A "pick to light" system for a simple pre-painted front bumper bracket (light turns on, operator picks from that bin...) might cost upwards of $300k plus the controls system. Everyone makes profit along the way to the dealership, so it really adds up.
