What do you do when you’re out of time? Get rid of all your clocks! GM has already taken the humiliating measure of cutting clock maintenance from the RenCen budget, and Chrysler is now following suit. William Wolf of Chrysler Paint, Pilot and Facility Operations notes over at Chrysler Blog that “every little bit helps.” But Wolf wasn’t satisfied with the mere $10K in savings that cutting clocks yielded. Eliminating rooftop parking to save plowing costs will save over $300K, while halving the number of fluorescent bulbs at the Auburn Hills Chrysler Technical Center will yield $400K. And despite the bitter Michigan winter, Chrysler has dropped the temperature at the CTC by four degrees, saving $70K annually. And yet, somehow, not everyone’s happy.
The only comment so far on the cutback blog post gives voice to the frustration of employees stuck in a penny-wise, pound-foolish company that everyone knows is going under. Tenbagger comments:
“Great Job, Bill!! At this rate, by the end of the century we will have recouped the hundreds of millions of dollars AME Senior Management lost on the Patriot/Compass launch. You remember that launch. That’s where AME Senior Management decided to blindly outsource the body shop and not require the supplier to follow our standards or involve our Engineers. Thank God with the new reorg we lost those managers….NOT. We couldn’t afford to lose that talent now could we? You can force me to use both sides of the toilet paper if you’d like, but until we lose the no talent never waz’s running our AME organization, our fate is sealed”
If you have time and can spare the money, read this book.
http://www.worldcat.org/isbn/1414040792
It is hilariously funny. Or would be if it weren’t for the fact that we’re watching the melt-down of Chrysler before our very eyes.
And GM for that matter.
The madness continues….
Delphi has closed up half the restrooms to cut down on cleaning costs….no matter that they are at the same time consolidating (cramming) more people into the same office space. This way, the UAW janitor only has to clean 1/2 the restrooms, so it doesn’t interfere with nap time. I wish I had a device that recorded the time lost of having to wait in line or even go to another floor or building to use the bathroom because you forgot to BYOTP. I’m pretty sure the BOD has their own private john. We are also emptying or own trash into “Personal Waste Disposal Stations”.
There is still further to cut….does anyone else remember GM dropping the last “e” in the word “employee” on all HR documents in the 80’s to save on printing costs? Lunacy!
Man, that’s cold.
Talk about something that smacks of desperation. Heating and lighting expenses are hardly the cause of D3’s problem so they are not part of the answer. BUT, I have to ask…what if all of America decided to cut back a few degrees…eliminated the senseless over-lighting that is so prevalent in most buildings…designed buildings with efficiency in mind, not just lowest construction cost…I think a national energy reduction of at least 20% would be a piece of cake. Saving GM? This is not the answer. Saving for our future? Makes some sense in that light.
Throw Rick wagoneer out and save a cool 15 million. Think of all the lightbulbs and toilet paper that would buy.
BUT, I have to ask…what if all of America decided to cut back a few degrees…eliminated the senseless over-lighting that is so prevalent in most buildings…designed buildings with efficiency in mind, not just lowest construction cost
Are you mad, man?! That’s Socialism!
Well, since Chrysler only has 3 CEO’s, they’ve clearly cut so close to the bone that these measures are all that are left. I heard Nardelli was vacuuming his own dimly lit office just the other day..
I have been following this for years. At times it has amused me; other times anger…
This entry depressed me to no end.
Reminds me of the Titanic…you know you are going down, nothing is going to stop it, and all you can do is make ineffectual efforts to prolong the final demise. Most of the people there will somehow have to learn to swim in a very cold environment. The Captains have their golden launches standing by.
19967MEdition,
The BOD at GM sure does have their own bathroom. A goo ‘ole boy from back home that goes by the name Ross Perot once called them out on it.
During a discussion of cost-savings measures at a Board meeting he wondered aloud how much it cost to maintain a bathroom that was bigger than his whole damn house and a valet to hand him a towel to wipe his hands and, of course, the cost of the linen towel he was handed.
While I am no fan of the UAW, or most other unions for that matter, simply restructuring their contract won’t help when morons disguised as leaders are tripping over stacks of hundred dollar bills to pick up a few stray pennies.
Just think of the millions they could save by going out of business!!!!
John
That’s a shame about Chrysler cutting out the clocks in the offices. The employees there were probably taking bets which would run out first, the clock batteries, or the company.
As an engineer that used computers in my work, I am amazed at the ignorance of architects in proper lighting. Most buildings are lit for 1950 where paperwork is illuminated by external lighting. Today, computer displays emit light and their visibility is degraded by bright external lighting. In many of my workplaces, the building lighting was diminished to favor the computer displays.
I will reluctantly admit that I work at one of the d3 companies. Our 90’s building has open light switches, and the overhead lights in my area are usually off. Computers and windows light the area well. Also, conference rooms are switched off by employees when not in use.
In addition, “smelly” trash discarded in special centralized containers that are emptied nightly, and paper/trash is picked up in offices/cubes less often.
My colleagues have been for a very long time considerate of unnecessary costs. Also, at the risk of being labeled a “cheerleader”, believe my employer has always encouraged this behavior.
If you employees don’t take retirement you can always freeze them out.
They could also close the bathrooms and have the employees come to work in diapers.
Well the poor employees unfortunately now have a first hand experience with “a cold day in Hell.
Edward, it doesn’t matter whether a Michigan winter is “bitter” or “mild,” the folks inside a building will have the same response to moving the thermostat down four degrees.
I read William Wolf’s announcement, and I think he sounds a lot more reasonable than his anonymous critic, “Tenbagger.” (As in, “executives wasted money, so I shouldn’t have to economize” logic.)
By the way, what the heck is the “AME” organization Tenbagger is talking about?
Economizing is ok, as long as it makes sense. I remember some years ago the federal gov’t decided it would save beaucoup bucks to have the standard paper size be 8×10.5 inches. They even bought smaller file cabinets so they could fit more of them into the same floor space. Of course the new size fouled up so many things and pissed off so many people that they had to go back to everyone else’s standard size after only a short time.
Since it was the government I am sure that the planner who had this idea kept his job.
@50merc:
“AME” stands for Advanced Manufacturing Engineering within Chrysler. You need to understand the history a little bit to fully appreciate “Tenbagger`s” response. AME was responsible for completely tooling up a plant(Paint, BIW, TCF) and always had to be fully “cost conscious”. That department was mainly responsible for the manufacturing competitiveness Chrysler held in the `90`s and successfully erected Chrysler plants around the globe.(Austria, Brazil, Argentina etc-all gone now)until it got busted by their glorious new management. The gentlemen “Tenbagger” is responding to actually is the son in law of a former Chrysler manufacturing exec who “qualified” for his post solely through “family ties” and has a proven record of incompetence.
that is hilarious, although cost cutting is not, and should have been implemented decades ago. why run 100 lightbulbs if 50 will efficiently do the job?
but my main pain is not the lightbulbs or the snow shovels, rather the pick heads runing the operation and the collective sack of rotten potatoes that call themselves board of directors that keeps these guys (gimps) there.
Come on america, you preach about accountability all the time, and yet no one is held accountable….
I just wanted to point out that if none of these cost saving measures were implemented at either GM or Chrysler some people would be complaining that they are wasting money – taxpayer money no less. It’s a no-win scenario. And God forbid they do something nice for their employees – like an employee appreciation day party with food, a band, some prizes, etc. There would be some who raise hell saying it was a “waste” of taxpayer money.
From the Chrysler Blog:
One recent change we made: we’ve gone from two to one fluorescent bulb in the overhead lights in our offices at the CTC. The adjustment took more than a simple flick of the light switch, but the savings are enormous – about $400,000 in the first year alone. With fewer bulbs to replace, those savings will grow over time. We’ll also save from reduced cooling costs – those lights add a lot of heat, even in the winter.
Dim bulb doesn’t even begin to capture it…