Do people really believe that cars assembled on a Friday afternoon are likely to be poorly made?
After all, it's only the final assembly that takes place on that day, and in any case Friday afternoon may not be the end of the working week for those particular workers. The inspection procedures will be the same as for any other time, and the components and sub-assemblies in those cars will have been made at all sorts of times.
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L\'escargot.
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It's only a Friday afternoon car in the UK. In Europe they are Monday morning cars.
I suspect it's a term whereby the UK look forward to the weekend so rush a job to get out the door Friday pm whereas in Europe it's due to people arriving at work slightly the worse for wear after weekend festivities.
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If it's a French car I'd be worried about any afternoon not just Fridays. I can't imagine quality goes up after 1/2 ltr of wine for lunch.
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Doesn't this term date from the fifties and sixties, when there were many more fatigue/boredom-prone humans on the assembly line? In the US, as well as Friday dogs, there were examples called 'foreman's friends', destined for company executives or their wives or perhaps to be lent out to magazine testers. These would get extra care in the fit and finish departments, and also would get the best engines and gearboxes.
Modern robotics have made quality a lot more consistent.
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if Red Robbo and his motely crew had been capable of assembling an entire car on ANY afternoon let alone a Friday we might still have a car industry. :)
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I understand that most PSA cars are only built on Fridays!
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Wonder who built my Citroen then. Certainly got less squeaks and rattles than a friends same age Golf. Totally faultless in 15,000 miles. Just like the Picasso that preceeded it.
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The concept has gone as fewer humans are involved with the assembly, and particularly with the concept of bought-in sub assemblies and much better quality control throughout the whole manufacturing process. But, things being what they are, any component or sub assembly will have 99.XX% reliability. With a large number of cars produced the odd car will have more than its fair share of the faulty components. That's your 'Friday afternoon' car.
JS
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Gone are the day's of putting an empty milk bottle in chassis rails of Land Rovers - if you ever had one and couldn't find rattle you now know what it was.
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Doesn't this term date from the fifties and sixties, ..
yep, that is the origin of the phrase. the phrase is still used in a modern context simply to indicate that a particlar car is giving exceptionally more problems than is the norm for such a make/model.
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A certain maker was known to put nuts bolts etc inside the hollow panels on Police Spec cars....
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Aren't cars made by machines now, running 24 hours a day 365 days a year? But I suppose the machines are still serviced by humans, so there might be a tendency to put off a service job that became apparent on Friday afternoon.
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Aren't cars made by machines now running 24 hours a day 365 days a year?
No. The shells are welded by machines but the majority of bought in components/sub-assemblies are still fitted by people.
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Thanks gmac. I suppose that ought to be comforting really. These bits of film of robots bustling about making cars are a bit selective and give the impression of total automation.
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I went round Dagenham in the mid-70s and saw numerous Friday afternoon Cortinas being thrown together by workers more interested in playing cards and drinking tea - and this is front of a factory visit! But I don't think Friday afternoon cars exist any more.
The last 3 car plants I visited (Mercedes in Stuttgart and Porsche in Stuttgart and Leipzig in the last couple of years) all had large productivity clocks showing whether the plants were ahead, on, or behind schedule. The pressure is clearly on to meet or beat targets, so the temptation to cut corners must surely be present at any time of the week (assuming the assembly workers pay is related to productivity, as it must surely).
Sometimes delays occured because of outside suppliers failing to supply 'just-in-time', and the factory tries to catch up accordingly.
Modern car production is so automated that the manual element has can have very very little effect on the finished product.
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The shells are welded by machines but the majority of bought in components/sub-assemblies are still fitted by people.
A surprising amount is assembled by machine - whole dashboard assemblies, sun-roofs, seats, windows, engines/running gear, wheels, doors. Only fiddly bits like wiring looms tend to get fitted by hand on mass-produced cars. Components like dashboards, A/C, seats, sunroofs etc. are often assembled by other suppliers off-site. How much of these are manufactured by hand or machine, I don't know.
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A surprising amount is assembled by machine - whole dashboard assemblies sun-roofs seats windows engines/running gear wheels doors. Only fiddly bits like wiring looms tend to get fitted by hand on mass-produced cars. Components like dashboards A/C seats sunroofs etc. are often assembled by other suppliers off-site. How much of these are manufactured by hand or machine I don't know.
Agreed these sub-assemblies can be put together by machine off-site but the actual bolting in of the bulkhead soundproofing and dashboards, centre consoles, seats and engine/gearbox assemblies is still done by hand on mass produced lines (by this I mean mainstream manufacturers -Ford, Opel, Pug etc...- not MB/Porsche and the like).
True, a machine may lift them in and position but the final positioning and fixing is done manually.
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gmac, to see a complete Merc E-class dash come in one assembled piece, manoeuvred in through the door openings, lined up in position using lasers, offered into position by machine, tightened (only 7 bolts IIRC) by machine, loosened, and then torqued up by machine, all without a human hand anywhere near is quite impressive, I can tell you! The sunroof installation, again all done by machine and lasers to check alignment etc. is similarly impressive. The way the machines dance around is almost like watching a ballet!
Not much labour in that plant.
The Stuttgart Porsche factory is far more labour intensive (surprisingly so, with dashboards being assembled beside the line and installed by hand, etc.). Their Leipzig (Cayenne) plant is really just a final assembly shed - the bodies are delivered by Volkswagen already trimmed and painted, and all Porsche really do is fit the engine and drivetrain (delivered in from Stuttgart).
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boxsterboy, having worked in Munich for BMW and Ruesselsheim for Opel I have seen both the automated lines described above (3 series together in 3 minutes) and the labour intensive supermini construction. Laser alignment for dashboards is definitely something you will not see on a mainstream supermini line.
I've also seen a supermini built (in Europe) where the only automated interior fitment is the spare wheel being placed by robotic arm, the rest is done by hand.
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The only cars I've ever seen being built were Rover 800's and Honda Legends at Cowley (where Mini is now built) back in 1987. Rover worked closely with the local schools and were always organising factory visits, job placements and so on. Part of the reason I still feel a pang of sadness at Rover's subsequent demise.
Anyhow, I remember being very impressed as a car-mad 12 year old following a Rover 800 from the metal presses to a fully functioning (probably) car being driven off the line. Well, wheelspun off the line actually, but never mind.
The only part we didn't see was the paint shop for obvious reasons. Japanese working practices had recently been introduced, and everything looked remarkably clean and tidy with people appearing to be working hard.
The laser alignment test for the bodyshell was cool, as was the robot fitting the windscreens. The Legend and 800 were built on the same line, and the robot would pick the appropriate windscreen for the car that came along, and run a different fitting routine. Of course it's not rocket science, but it blew me away at the time.
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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My impression of the whole manufaturing process of modern cars, the massive investment in all the various machines to weld/manufature in a particular way, the programming needed, etc., was one of "how come these cars are so cheap to buy at the end of the day?"
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