Help with Engine Block Numbers

According to the link, Chrysler produced 496,900 engines in 1997 from that one plant, plus other items.

That comes to 1361 engines a day if production went on for 24/7/365 days a year. That incredible.

If you look at it a little more realistically, say 2000 operating hours a year per shift x 3 shifts or a total of 6000 hours a year almost 83 engines an hour. If you subtract 1.5 hours a day per shift for coffee breaks and lunch the number per hour gets even higher. Add to that the required down time for maintenance, service, and repair of equipment, material delays, shift start up and endings, and other stoppages, and we are easily looking at more than 100 units per hour. (1.6 engines per minute!).

I had no idea they had that kind of capacity.


...btw, 2000 hours per year per shift accounts for a 5 day work week, a week of vacation time and 6 holidays. I understand that the UAW had a better arrangement than that, but it's a valid number to estimate from.

Sorry to get off topic, here....