Day 12-Quarantine-Respirators by GM?

Posted on 28/03/2020 by Grumpa Joe

This post will not be a reflection of my day, rather an opinion on President Trump’s latest effort to move the country through the COVID-19 virus. This morning I listened to a news bit about Trump’s direction to General Motors to make respirators by the thousands and in a hurry. GM offered to help the country, but is moving slowly so the president being a typical impatient CEO has taken over and is using the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to force them into action. My comment on that is “Good Luck Pres.”

At one time GM was the largest car maker in the world and they let the Japs take it away from them. If any company will work like government i.e. slow, sluggish, takes forever, gets lost in its own bureaucracy General Motors is it. One of their largest problems has been with dealing in downsizing in order to increase profit. They have not learned how to make more with less, and that is after thirty years of trying. One anchor around their corporate neck is the UAW union.

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GM knows how to make cars, that is their business and that is what they can do best. How in the world will they be able to translate car manufacturing into respirators is a wish. Unfortunately, wishes don’t get things done. I give them credit for trying.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a disgruntled former GM employee. I started at GM in 1963 working for the Electromotive Division. At that time GM had over 90% of the world market share for diesel locomotives. What is their market share today? Who knows, but they lost the bulk of it to competitor’s because of two reasons; 1. They didn’t listen to their customers, and 2. They continued to kiss the ass of the UAW. GM finally gave up making locomotives in 2005 after converting the world from steam to diesel.

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I can not picture the kind of respirator that GM will build. It will most likely have four wheels and great styling, and they will all look like a Chevy or Cadillac . . .  SUV’s.

Another problem is that GM produces cars from components made in countries around the world. They only assemble them in the US. An internet search reports that 55 percent of GM car parts are from the United States and Canada, 20 percent from Japan, 15 percent from China,…

Any car company would be better off starting a new factory in an available warehouse with all new CNC machines installed for making parts. They would also buy ready made high volume components like pumps from companies that make pumps for a living. Put a team of engineers on this project and challenge them to get the problem solved, and respirators made in record time. I wouldn’t use GM engineers, because their culture is not to do things fast. The guys at Ford would be better suited for this type of project.

In my day as Chief Engineer, I would have had a field day managing this kind of work, and could easily have respirators in production quickly. The only requirement being that we don’t have to design the device from scratch.

Companies that make equipment like respirators for hospitals.

  • Resmed (USA)
  • Weinmann (Germany)
  • Philips Healthcare (Netherlands)
  • Carefusion (USA)
  • GE Healthcare (USA)
  • Medtronic (USA)
  • Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (New Zealand)
  • Teijin Pharma (Japan)
  • MEKICS (South Korea)
  • Dräger Medical (Germany)
  • DeVilbiss (USA)
  • Apex Medical (Taiwan)
  • Air Liquide (France)
  • Hamilton Medical (Switzerland)
  • SLE Ltd (United Kingdom)
  • eVent Medical (USA)
  • Maquet (Germany)
  • Siare Engineering (Italy)

I don’t see General Motors on this list anywhere. I would use these companies to make respirators en masse, not GM.

Another thing, I would demand a realistic estimate of the quantity needed. There is at least one report I read that stated we need seven billion respirators. Really? That is one for every citizen on the planet Earth. That is panic reporting and stupid. Not all seven billion people on this planet are sick today. The panic sellers conclude that this pandemic has the potential for infecting the entire Earth. Even if that happened only a small percentage would need respirators. And if we all needed them who would be healthy enough to hook us up to them? Calm down folks, there comes a time when we have to let nature take it’s course.

People who worry about death from pandemics also worry that the population of the Earth is too large thus causing all kinds of pollution and global warming.  Wars reduce population too, so does terrorism, and humans love to kill each other. A good purge might be healthy for Earth.

My prediction is that we will get through this pandemic in good condition because the virus will disappear for reasons we don’t understand. That will give us some time to finish and proof the vaccines in process, and that will happen long before GM can tool up to make seven billion respirators.

 

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Before GM Stood for Government Motors

Posted on 02/07/2015 by Grumpa Joe

One picture is worth a thousand words, so here are twenty-one thousand words. These are photos of billboards posted by General Motors in the Detroit area at a time in history when America was exceptional, proud, and still the best country in the world. It was at a time when blacks, hispanics, muslims, and gays thought so too. None of them needed demonstrations, hash tags, and civil disobedience to show they belonged. People had purpose in life because they worked. The war on poverty was not yet established, food stamps were not invented, and if you claimed unemployment insurance it was because you were unemployable for some drastic reason. Medicare was still a figment of some democrats imagination, and health care is what you did everyday to eat right, sleep right, and keep physically active right. There was no need for a war on drugs either.

This was a time when owning a car was still special. Your car was an expression of your self, and gave you another degree of freedom.

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Car Stuff

Posted on 04/12/2013 by Grumpa Joe

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My buddy Bob with whom I stood on street corners sixty years ago watching all the girls go by sent me this fascinating list of automobile trivia. Thank you Bob.

Trivia about cars.
 
Q:  What was the first official White House car?
A: A 1909 White Steamer, ordered by President Taft.
 
Q: Who opened the first drive-in gas station?
A: Gulf opened up the first station in Pittsburgh in 1913.
 
Q:  What city was the first to use parking meters?
A: Oklahoma City, on July 16, 1935.
 
Q: Where was the first  drive-in restaurant?
A: Royce Hailey’s Pig Stand opened in Dallas in 1921.
 
Q: True  or False? The 1953 Corvette came in white, red and  black.
A: False.  The 1953 ‘Vettes were available in one color, Polo White.
 
Q: What was Ford’s answer to the Chevy Corvette, and other legal street racers of the 1960’s?
A: Carroll Shelby’s Mustang GT350.
 
Q: What was the first car fitted with an alternator rather than a direct current generator?
A: The 1960 Plymouth Valiant
 
Q: What was the first car fitted with a replaceable cartridge oil filter?
A: The 1924 Chrysler.
 
Q: What was the first car to be offered with a “perpetual guarantee”?
A: The 1904 Acme, from Reading, PA. Perpetuity was disturbing in this case, as Acme closed down in 1911.
 
Q: What  American luxury automaker began by making cages for birds and squirrels?
A: The George N. Pierce Co. of Buffalo, who made the Pierce Arrow, also made iceboxes.
 
Q: What car first referred to itself as a convertible?
A: The 1904 Thomas Flyer, which had a removable hard top.
 
Q: What car was the first to have its radio antenna embedded in the windshield?
A: The 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix.
 
Q: What car used the first successful series-production hydraulic valve lifters?
A: The 1930 Cadillac 452, the first production V16
 
Q: Where was the World’s first three-color traffic lights installed?
A: Detroit, Michigan in 1919.  Two years later they experimented with synchronized lights.
 
Q: What type of car had the distinction of being GM’s 100 millionth car built in the U.S.?
A: March 16, 1966 saw an Olds Tornado roll out of Lansing, Michigan with that  honor.
 
Q: Where was the first  drive-in movie theater opened, and when?
A: Camden, NJ in 1933
 
Q: What autos were the first to use a standardized production key-start system?
A: The 1949 Chryslers
 
Q: What did the Olds designation 4-4-2 stand for?
A: 4 barrel carburetor, 4 speed  transmission, and dual exhaust.
 
Q: What car was the first to place the horn button in the center of the steering wheel?
A: The 1915 Scripps-Booth Model C. The car also was the first with electric door latches.
 
Q: What U.S. production car has the quickest 0-60 mph time?
A: The 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS 409. Did it in 4.0 seconds.
 
Q: What’s the only car to appear simultaneously on the  covers of Time and Newsweek?
A: The Mustang
 
Q: What was the lowest priced mass produced American car?
A: The 1925 Ford Model T Runabout. Cost $260, $5 less than 1924.
 
Q: What is the fastest internal-combustion American production car?
A: The 1998 Dodge Viper GETS-R, tested by Motor Trend magazine at 192.6 mph.
 
Q: What automaker’s first logo incorporated the Star of David?
A: The Dodge Brothers.
 
Q: Who wrote to Henry  Ford, “I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. It has got every other car skinned, and even if my business hasn’t been strictly legal it don’t hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8”?
A: Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and  Clyde) in 1934.
 
Q: What car was the first production V12, as well as the first production car with aluminum pistons?
A: The 1915 Packard Twin-Six. Used during WWI in Italy, these motors inspired Enzi Ferrari to adopt the V12 himself in 1948.
 
Q: What was the first car  to use power operated seats?
A: They were first used on the 1947 Packard line.
 
Q: Which of  the Chrysler “letter cars” sold the fewest amount?
A: Only 400, 1963, 300J’s were  sold (they skipped “I” because it looked like a  number 1)
 
Q: What car company was originally known as Swallow Sidecars (aka SS)?
A: Jaguar, which was an SS model first in 1935, and ultimately the whole company by 1945.
 
Q: What car delivered the first production V12 engine?
A: The cylinder wars were  kicked off in 1915 after Packard’s chief engineer, Col. Jesse Vincent, introduced its Twin-Six.
 
Q: When were seat belts first fitted to a motor vehicle?
A: In 1902, in a Baker Electric streamliner racer which crashed at 100 mph. on Staten Island!
 
Q: In January 1930, Cadillac debuted its V16 in a car named for a theatrical version of a 1920’s film seen by Harley Earl while designing the body. What’s that name?
A: The “Madam X”, a custom  coach designed by Earl and built by Fleetwood. The sedan featured a retractable landau top above the rear seat.
 
Q: Which car company  started out German, yet became French after  WWI?
A: Bugati, founded in Molsheim in 1909, became French when Alsace returned to French rule.
 
Q: In what model year did Cadillac introduce the first electric sunroof?
A: 1969
 
Q: What U.S. production car had the largest 4 cylinder engine?
A: The 1907 Thomas sported a 571 cu. in. (9.2liter) engine.
 
Q:  What car was reportedly designed on the back of a Northwest Airlines airsickness bag and released on April Fool’s Day, 1970?
A: 1970 Gremlin,  (AMC)
 
Q: What is the Spirit of Ecstasy?
A: The official name of the mascot of Rolls Royce, she is the lady on top of their radiators.
 
Q: What was the inspiration for MG’s famed octagon-shaped badge?
A: The shape of founder Cecil Kimber’s dining table. MG stands for Morris Garages.
 
Q: In what year did the “double-R” Rolls Royce badge change from red to black?
A: 1933
 
Trivia: Ford, who made the first pick-up trucks, shipped them to dealers in crates that the new owners had to assemble using the crates as the beds of the trucks.  The new owners had to go to the dealers to get them, thus they had to “pick-up” the trucks.  And now you know the “rest of the story”!
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You Set Up the Lemonade Stand to Buy All the Lemonade

Posted on 08/09/2012 by Grumpa Joe
UAW members at protest

UAW members at protest (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a “thing” for unions. In Particular the UAW. While working a summer job for International Harvester  as a college freshmen, I met the UAW. I went to look at my design for a machine frame on a welding table in the R&D shop. I examined the way the welder had placed all the pieces of steel on the welding table over a layout of the design. I saw a part out-of-place by what I thought a large amount. I tapped the piece back into the correct place. The act took but a few seconds to complete. Within a few minutes my boss Mervyn came out and asked me to walk with him. I did. As we left the shop floor, I noticed that all the shop-workers were conspicuously sitting down doing nothing. Inside the office, Mervyn lectured me on life in a UAW factory. It seems my adjustment stole life-giving sustenance from the mouth of UAW families. They showed who was boss by sitting down on the job. They didn’t go back to work until Merv’s boss came out to apologize to the UAW shop Steward about my mis-behavior.

After my experience I began to take notice of UAW articles in the newspapers. They struck a lot. Walter Reuther was head of the UAW at that time. GM announced a multi-billion dollar profit and Reuther boldly proclaimed that the UAW would get their piece of the pie. GM workers went on strike and were out for several weeks. I cannot believe those guys ever made back what they lost in wages during that time. GM lost business to Ford and Chrysler and ultimately caved.

What I noticed following strike articles is the attitude of the striking workers; “we would rather see this company go out of business than to make a single concession in a contract.”

Watch what will happen in Chicago this month. The teacher’s union will strike to get their demands for a raise. Poor teachers, twenty-three million private sector workers are scraping to find a meal, and they are looking for more money. None of what they are asking for is for the betterment of your kids, it is for themselves. They have the same attitude as the UAW on bringing the school district to its knees. Mayor Rahm-bo Emmanuel will cave not because he wants to see all his under-performing schools do better and the kids in his city learn to read and write, but rather will be looking to protect his former boss during the election. That means we pay the bill folks, by paying higher taxes.

In the meantime, enjoy the article below about the Hopey-Changey-Feely success of the UAW and Govmnt Motors.

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Reblogged from several sites

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By Angel, on July 12th, 2012

Remember how Obama keeps telling us how he saved GM, and how our economy is getting better, it seems the car company he bought is being saved by Govt employees using our tax money to buy new cars. 79% of GM’s sales last month was government purchased.

GM’s sales figures for last month were the best since 2008 , up 16% for the month of June. YIPPEE! Well, wait just a minute. It seems that those rosey sales figures are due primarily to a 79% increase in fleet sales to the U.S.government in June. That’s right. Our tax dollars are being used to pump up GM’s sales figures ahead of next month’s quarterly report so that Dear Leader can point to Government Motors as a huge success. The incestuous relationship between GM, the UAW and the Regime has never been more glaringly apparent. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. GM is unsustainable without government subsidies and will ultimately go bust again, taking billions of taxpayer dollars down with it.

We bailed out General Motors to the tune of $50 billion. $30 billion of this is effectively a loss, mostly sunk into fattening the United Auto Workers union—fierce Obama supporters—while the actual bondholders were shown the elevator shaft.

Meanwhile, as NewsBusters reports, “We the Taxpayers are still stuck holding 500+ million shares of GM stock.  Which we need to sell at $53 per.  Which debuted post-bankruptcy at $33 per.  And which is currently trading at just over $20 per.  Meaning we’ll lose about $15 billion.”

But it gets better. Despite the overwhelming negatives, the tiny bright spot of positive June sales numbers is being heralded by Obama and the leftist press as proof the auto bailout was a “success.”

Obama is now campaigning on the “success” of – the government buying cars from…the government’s car company.  With our money.

Americanvision says That’s like you setting up a lemonade stand for your kids.  You buy them the lemons, sugar, cups and pitchers – and then buy most of the lemonade yourself.

The pressure is on Government Motors to appear financially strong as this may be the last earnings report before November elections and sets the stage for how “successful” GM is. One of GM’s past tricks to help fudge earnings numbers has been to stuff truck inventory channels. Old habits die hard at GM. According to a Bloomberg report, “GM said inventory of its full-size pickups, which will be refreshed next year, climbed to 238,194 at the end of June, a 135 days supply, up from 116 days at the end of May.” 135 days supply is huge, the accepted norm is a 60 day supply. The trick here is that GM records revenue when vehicles go into dealership inventories, not when actually sold to consumers.

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Why Drive a Volt When You Can Soup Up Your Own Car

Posted on 27/03/2012 by Grumpa Joe
2011 Chevrolet Volt exhibited at the 2010 Wash...

2011 Chevrolet Volt exhibited at the 2010 Washington Auto Show. The Chevy Volt is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This do it yourself video is for my Green Friends who love to drive the Volt and other Green Cars.

Porcelain Carburetor

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