'68 Monthly Production Mystery

[William S.]

I compared the actual date of production of my '68 (June 27-28) with the published monthly serial numbers for the '68 model year. Further analysis produced the following monthly figures: Sep'67--905 cars / Oct--2505 / Nov--2272 / Dec--2240 / Jan'68--2464 / Feb--2261 / Mar--2353 / Apr--2676 / May--3252 / Jun--3050 / Jul--4588. This left me with some questions:

September's low production is probably because of pilot cars going down the line, and maybe a shortened production schedule. The lower than normal production in November and December is likey because of the holidays. What baffled me was the high numbers in May, June, and July. Did the plant work a lot of overtime in these months ? Did the work force reach its stride by these months ? Were some of the serial numbers "lost", so that actual production was less than computed from the serial numbers ? Did July production actually extend into August ? I'm sure someone out there knows the answer, and I appreciate getting the information.

[Terry M.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

Contrary to Chevrolet's numbers, there was 1968 MY producion into August, 1968. Now whether those cars were tallied as July production, I don't know. This is just another reason that one has to take all these numbers with a grain of salt.

In the 1970-1972 production where we have the blue certification label on the door jam, the month date often preceeds the end of month VIN numbers supplied by Chevroelet. Birthday? We don't need no stinking birthday!

[John H.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

William -

Chevrolet's reported numbers are funky; production rate was 112-115 units per day, and that never changed.

[William S.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

Where does the funkness appear ? Was there actually 28500+ cars produced in model year 1968, or is this number inflated because of skipped serial numbers ? If so, what are the actual production numbers ? Thanks.

Bill

[Rich G.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

I may be wrong, but I think I read that no coupes shipped until January due to problems. If true, that would explain the low numbers at the start. My 68 coupe has L18 on the trim tag and it is 25491.

Rich

[William S.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

If true, that might also explain the high numbers near the end of production; filling all those unfilled coupe orders, even though the magazine "testers" (i.e., people with an opinion and a soapbox from which to preach) tried to trash the '68s at the beginning of the model year run.

Bill

[John H.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

The "high numbers near the end of production" are wrong. Production linespeed was constant at slightly over seven units per hour, and never changed; you don't "crank up the speed" of an assembly line without enlarging the building, lengthening the conveyors, rearranging every operation, adding people, equipment and tooling, and re-training every operator in the plant. Didn't happen.

[Kevin M.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

John,

Could you also clear up were any VIN's skipped destroyed or other wise never made it out the door?

Kevin

[Michael W.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

I think the missing VIN numbers only happened in '73, and is very well documented.

[William S.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

In June, 1968 there were 20 production days Monday - Friday. If the maximum production was 115 cars per day, that totals 2300 cars. Computing from the published serial numbers, 3050 cars were produced. Either the month's starting serial number is wrong, or the month's ending serial number is wrong, or the plant worked overtime, or there are some missing serial numbers, or perhaps the plant listed assigned serial numbers rather than produced cars. The mystery still remains !

[George C.]

Line Speed was a Factor in production #'s

The workers at St. Louis were at odds with management over line speed for years. Gun ho formen at the Corvette plant were constanly cranking up the line speed. The plant had been operating at maximun capacity for years, on two 9-hour shifts, plus Saturday and Sundays at times. Line speed at St. Louis was cranked to 10 cars per hour and ran like that for years. Managemaent treated the workers at St.Louis like dogs, that a well know fact. Save the Wave.>George

[Geoff C.]

What say you Management Dog Handlers

I know who you devils are

[Dick W.]

Re: '68 Monthly Production Mystery

I seem to remember that 1968 production totalled 13 months or part thereof--August 1967 to August 1968. The table in the JG we are using does not include August 1967 for some reason. I have a pencilled-in note to correct it in the future, but no numbers listed.

[John H.]

Re: Line Speed was a Factor in production #'s

The line rate at St. Louis was dictated by the Body Shop ("kick" time for bonding resin), and was 7+ per hour from 1954-1972; when SMC panels and new bonding resins were introduced in 1973 for the '74 model year, it allowed a planned, facilitized, and manned increase to 10 per hour. The "stories" you hear about "cranking up the linespeed on the sly" are bogus.