Invitation Only Event La Area

[JEBar]

As a quick aside, before working at GM, I worked at Johnson Controls where we assembled the seats for the S-10/hombre. We once shut down the GM assembly line for over an hour accidentally from a simple flat tire on a truck delivering our seats across town to the GM plant. Imagine all the things that can go wrong if the supplier is across the country!

the RV manufacturing industry works off of a "just in time" supply line model ....with most of the suppliers located in the Indiana area, it makes things a bit easier .... winter weather can and does play heck with the process but all in all, it works well .... they have operated in this manner for so long that the kinks have been pretty well worked out

 

[Ty]

the RV manufacturing industry works off of a "just in time" supply line model ....with most of the suppliers located in the Indiana area, it makes things a bit easier .... winter weather can and does play heck with the process but all in all, it works well .... they have operated in this manner for so long that the kinks have been pretty well worked out

When I was finishing my Masters degree, we visited the Airstream plant. It was definitely interesting.

 

[pistonboy]

I attended the Invitation Only Event in the LA Area and had a good time. I wore a name tag I had made showing my avatar picture with my name and “elioowners.com” on it. I did not see any other elioowners tags. My tag was noticed by Bliokart and Robert7841. All three of us met, talked, and had a good time.

Below is what I learned.

When changing the rear tire, of course the lug nuts will be on one side. The black panel on that side will be hinged to permit access to the wheel.

The P5 color may not be blue. It may be some other color as determined by the reservationists. This is from the workers who said they hoped it would not be black since black shows dirt very much. (Remember they are the ones responsible for keeping it sparkling clean for the tours.)

The P5 will have two hood latches. The CAD drawing simply left them off.

Because of 506(c), they have almost half of the development money. Money is still continuing to come in.

I told Paul Elio there is a story of Elio Motors losing funding because they were late to secure a manufacturing site due to a lawsuit initiated by a Caddo Parish commissioner. I asked him if this was true. He indicated most of the story is not true but did not go into details and I did not press him of the subject. Bliokart may remember more than I. He has a good memory.

The new funding program, crowd funding, will be announced June 19.

The P5's engine will have variable valve timing.

Optional items may be installed at the plant. Example: If 9 people want cloth seats and 1 wants leather. Cloth seats will be installed at the plant and one leather seat will swapped at the marshaling center. If 9 people want leather seats and 1 wants cloth, then leather seats will be installed at the plant and one cloth seat will be swapped at the marshaling center.

For the first 45 days, enough people to staff two shifts will be working together on one shift. They will start at 70% of capacity and increase to 100% capacity by end of the 45 day period. For the next 45 days, these two groups of people will split up and operate two shifts. Once again they will start at 70% and increase to 100% by the end of that 45 day period. At day 90, they are expecting to be at 1000 per day (100%) which is a yearly rate of 250,000 per year, and remain at that rate. They are expecting to produce essentially 250,000 vehicles during their first 12 months.

The satellite marshaling centers around the country are to be handled by a contracting company. Paul Elio refrained from naming it, saying it is on the stock exchange. The first marshaling center will be at the plant, with one of its purposes to determine how marshaling centers should be built and operated.

My impression about Paul Elio is: 1. He is very smart. 2. He works hard. 3. He thinks big.

I wish Zelio was still here. She was such a classy lady.

I hope my post shows Elio Motors is not the moribund (near death) enterprise many naysayer have portrayed it to be. They have been very alive and active.

Hmmm...I noticed I used the word "enterprise" when I wrote this. I may have hit upon a nickname for my Elio vehicle.

 

[pistonboy]

Ron Miller, who is a prominent member of StartEngine which is prominent in crowd funding, was present at the Invitation Only LA event. He is known for his interest in socially beneficially entrepreneurship, which the Elio Motors project would fall under.

The P4 was diverted from its tour to LA for funding reasons. StartEngine may handle the Elio Motors crowd funding efforts (possibly headed by Ron Miller) with FilmBreak providing the promotional video and more.

 

[Helios]

Yes. It's absolutely possible to make that many cars at that plant. I'd like to take a moment and explain how. I'll keep the math minimal.

Assembling vehicles is a more appropriate way to look at what Elio will be doing versus thinking of them as a manufacturer. Suppliers will do most of the manufacturing - everything from door skins to steering wheels...

Each assembly line has a series of jobs that are done one right after the other. As soon as a person at, say, station 100 puts the headlights in place, they get ready to put headlights on the next vehicle. While that person is doing that one job, up and down the line people are doing all the other jobs that go into making a vehicle. When you think about it, if you were to walk next to your Elio from the first station till it was driven out the doors, you may be walking for a few hours watching each person putting something else on your Elio or connecting something that was put on by someone else. You might come away from the experience thinking "Wow, it took them three hours to build my Elio so they can probably make less than 3 of them per 8 hour shift" You would be right IF only one process can be done at a time. Obviously, each worker will repeat their small part of the assembly over and over all day long as cars pass by them.

My job at GM was to make sure that each job on the assembly line took less than 52 seconds to accomplish. Now, at the time, GM ran the line a little slower but only by a couple of seconds. When it comes to serial production (or assembly in this case), you can only build cars as fast as the slowest station (if the process takes too long, they'll just add another of the same work station next to the first on the line so that each station works on every other car). In other words, if it takes 2 minutes to install a windshield and you can only do 1 at a time, you can only produce one car every 2 minutes. In Elio's case, they will be able to produce at least one vehicle every 52 seconds. (I haven't been there in a while but surely the line isn't SLOWER than it used to be.

So, Elio can at least make one vehicle every 54 seconds just like we did with GM. Elio says they'll run at 70% capacity which is a fancy way of saying 70% of the line's top speed. That means they'll make one Elio every 77 seconds. That's 46 per hour or 368 per shift. T(Theoretical top speed would put out one Elio per 54 seconds or 533 per shift which is 1066 per two shifts * 5 days * 50 weeks = 266,500 per year.)

Some people may be saying "But, it'll take a long time for the assembly workers to get up to speed." Those people are wrong. If you perform a job 368 times in a day, how many days would it take before you "got it"? Here's a stupid case... IF Elio ran the line at 10% capacity for one day, each person on the line would have done their job 36 times. It's absurd to think it would take someone that many times to complete a 54 second automotive assembly job correctly. Anyway, the ramp-up period is more about figuring out just HOW to get all the parts to the line in time and where to park all those brand new Elios.

Because the Elios will come in two configurations, (the line workers aren't affected by color) there won't be a single complicated job on the line. There was only one complicated job at the GM facility that I saw and that was assembling the cross body harness because it was a two person job that involved threading the harness through the firewall from the engine bay into the interior. The Elio will be much more simple.

Bonus info:
*Parts are delivered from the line via a little train-like tug from a central "grocery store".
*There is a train spur right in the building where GM would receive many parts.
*There was a supervisor for about every 10 or so line jobs. That person would take over for someone who "couldn't hold it any longer" to prevent line shut-downs
*The windshield installation station was the neatest to me to watch as there was a robot that ran a bead of adhesive around the thing.
*The air bags were scanned more than a couple times along with the VIN to ensure they tracked which ones were with which vehicle.
*They parked all the cars ON the left hand white lines in the parking lot to ensure even spacing.
*I drove a Ford Probe while I worked there.
*No one ever messed with it.
*I'm retiring from the Air Force in the next year and would love to do industrial engineering for Elio though I know I wouldn't be the best choice.

Great info!

Could you comment subject, where factory's utilization rate is lower. I think that big three couldn't produce (economically) small volume models @ high volume factories, fixed costs were too high. What you think about EMs situation, if factory is run @ 50% utilization rate? Is the assembly line operation as heavy (needs near full utilization to be economical)?

 

[AriLea]

Ron Miller, who is a prominent member of StartEngine which is prominent in crowd funding, was present at the Invitation Only LA event. He is known for his interest in socially beneficially entrepreneurship, which the Elio Motors project would fall under.

The P4 was diverted from its tour to LA for funding reasons. StartEngine may handle the Elio Motors crowd funding efforts (possibly headed by Ron Miller) with FilmBreak providing the promotional video and more.

I do find that exceptionally interesting. I can see how the StartEngine / Elio Motors relationship started, Ron contacted Elio to encourage them, I'd lay money on that.

I would not be surprised if Ron didn't become a substantial investor after this success, or at least hook that up for EM.

 

[Coss]

But don't big investors usually want a say in the product?
PE has always pushed to keep the vision "pure".

 

[AriLea]

But don't big investors usually want a say in the product?
PE has always pushed to keep the vision "pure".

With a moral investor, it depends on how much they buy into the vision.

 

[Ian442]

[/QUOTE]
Hmmm...I noticed I used the word "enterprise" when I wrote this. I may have hit upon a nickname for my Elio vehicle.[/QUOTE]

 

[Ty]

Great info!

Could you comment subject, where factory's utilization rate is lower. I think that big three couldn't produce (economically) small volume models @ high volume factories, fixed costs were too high. What you think about EMs situation, if factory is run @ 50% utilization rate? Is the assembly line operation as heavy (needs near full utilization to be economical)?

When you run slower, you add in some costs... If there are (nominally speaking here) 240 work stations and each working at top speed took 1 minute, your car would take 4 man-hours each to assemble. If you ran at half speed, you would take 8 man-hours. Now, if the average line worker made $20/hr., you'd raise the vehicle price by $80. Not ideal but not bank breaking either. If Elio is counting on volume discounts from suppliers, they would have to maintain a certain output to contain costs. I don't think Elio is off base in their projections for production. They should be able to hit the numbers like they have said. Every year when GM would reset the factory for the new models, it was only a couple weeks of shutdown for that so I don't see any problem with Elio thinking they'll be ready for production by next year. They'll start hiring people to actually work on the factory floor a bit before production is set to start and then they'll get to moving. The line workers won't need more than a day or two to learn their jobs and the only reason it'll take that long is that they'll be starting the line meaning people at the end of the line will be performing their tasks for the first time while people at the start of the line will be performing their 200th time. The hard part, to me, will be the behind the scenes stuff. They'll have to get the right parts delivered at the right time and placed in the right spots. They'll have to have an order system in place so when they call me, they get the right color and transmission put in (Actually, now that I think about it, that won't be hard at all). The marshaling center there at Shreveport will have to be staffed extra heavy at first as they'll probably have to accessorize every single car that comes off the line for a while till the other marshaling centers are up and running. Elio could have those 8 sites up and ready at the same time. They'd have to train some people how to run them first though... Hmm... I'm about to retire from the Air Force in a couple of months...