Wiring Color Changes Not As Expected

[Gary Lewis]

Gary, a lot of items like that have to do with the build date of the vehicle and the lead time on components like wiring harnesses. A truck built in Dearborn in Aug 1985 might have the 1986 style harnesses while one built in Norfolk could easily have the older harnesses.

I had a 1964 Falcon that had a lot of Mustang PNs, 289 heads on a 260 etc. it was built July 27th 1964.

Yep, I'm sure you are right, Bill. That appears to be the way the slide locks were phased out and the pin locks phased in - by plant. But Big Blue's manufacture date of 5/85 is earlier than I expected the wire color change to be introduced. I would have thought that a date in August or September would have been more likely. So apparently the '85 trucks got a smattering of the wire color changes.

[Rembrant]

If you'd bought 100 miles of pink wire with black dots would you throw it out because it was August 1985?

The electrons on the inside never see the 'sell by' date, nor do they care.

Haha, oh I agree 100% Jim, but Steve83 (a former member on here) used to argue that there was no such thing as leftover parts in just-in-time manufacturing. His argument to your point above would be that extra wire was never purchased in the first place, so therefore there could never be any leftover.

He was adamant that NOS parts ONLY came from dealer inventories, and never as extras from a warehouse or production facility, or outside supplier.

Of course we know that is not true. Companies like DC and LMC have shown all kinds of different items that were clearly leftovers from production runs.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

If you'd bought 100 miles of pink wire with black dots would you throw it out because it was August 1985?

The electrons on the inside never see the 'sell by' date, nor do they care.

Haha, oh I agree 100% Jim, but Steve83 (a former member on here) used to argue that there was no such thing as leftover parts in just-in-time manufacturing. His argument to your point above would be that extra wire was never purchased in the first place, so therefore there could never be any leftover.

He was adamant that NOS parts ONLY came from dealer inventories, and never as extras from a warehouse or production facility, or outside supplier.

Of course we know that is not true. Companies like DC and LMC have shown all kinds of different items that were clearly leftovers from production runs.

I'm sure he was there at the wire factory watching the dots roll down the wire and then jammed the machine so it could only make stripes. 😲

Of course, then that spool had to be rewound, so the stripe was towards the tail end of the spool.

[Rembrant]

I'm sure he was there at the wire factory watching the dots roll down the wire and then jammed the machine so it could only make stripes. 😲

Of course, then that spool had to be rewound, so the stripe was towards the tail end of the spool.

Ever see one of those big Husky injection molding machines in action? Even though the auto assembly plant lines ran on just in time production, lots of the vendors would have been making extra inventory. Lots of it was probably scrapped if it wasn't sent to the plants. Anyway, point is, the changeover in parts/assembly was a bit of a moving target, with overlap on the model year changes.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'm sure he was there at the wire factory watching the dots roll down the wire and then jammed the machine so it could only make stripes. 😲

Of course, then that spool had to be rewound, so the stripe was towards the tail end of the spool.

Ever see one of those big Husky injection molding machines in action? Even though the auto assembly plant lines ran on just in time production, lots of the vendors would have been making extra inventory. Lots of it was probably scrapped if it wasn't sent to the plants. Anyway, point is, the changeover in parts/assembly was a bit of a moving target, with overlap on the model year changes.

Look what happened when that magnesium die casting plant dedicated to the auto sector went up in flames a year or two ago!

Production lines throughout North America were idled without their widgets.

Edit, link:

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'm sure he was there at the wire factory watching the dots roll down the wire and then jammed the machine so it could only make stripes. 😲

Of course, then that spool had to be rewound, so the stripe was towards the tail end of the spool.

Ever see one of those big Husky injection molding machines in action? Even though the auto assembly plant lines ran on just in time production, lots of the vendors would have been making extra inventory. Lots of it was probably scrapped if it wasn't sent to the plants. Anyway, point is, the changeover in parts/assembly was a bit of a moving target, with overlap on the model year changes.

It takes time to change over dies and proof the run before you can ramp up production.

You certainly need to sit on inventory of you are tasked with JIT delivery.

Contracts and schedules to each assembly plant might give you a good idea of what you need, but you don't want to fall short and pay the penalty.

Raw stock used in product is a pittance compared to retooling.

And then you have to juggle runs of each of your products and develop new ones as engineering brings you new prints.

The fact that most of this is digital these days certainly helps make it lean, but you're foolish not to have some surplus.

[Angelo Voltura]

Steve was always adamant that there was no such thing as using up leftover parts! If you thought that then you didn’t understand just in time production!

I'd argue that all day long with my fathers truck that thing has got all kinds of oddities in it lol.