Volkswagen recruits from McDonald's for plant workers

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY and the Detroit Free Press


http://i.imgur.com/PzvkU.jpg

Here's one reason why Volkswagen likes hiring former fast-food employees for its 2.5 million-square-foot plant here in the heart of the Tennessee Valley.

"Inexperience is a key," said Gary Booth, director of the Volkswagen Academy training operation. "Some of our best employees came from McDonald's. They know standardized work."

Booth, strolling the halls of Volkswagen's 163,000-square-foot training facility connected to the plant, said he doesn't want to hire assembly-line workers who have developed "bad habits" at previous manufacturing jobs.

Most of the plant's 3,350 employees, who start at $14 per hour plus benefits, had never worked in an auto factory before joining Volkswagen. Before hitting the assembly line they complete six weeks of training in the Volkswagen Academy, which the state of Tennessee supported with $56 million in incentives, Booth said.

The German automaker, which produces the Volkswagen Passat at the plant, said Tuesday that it had finished its latest phase of hiring for the operation. It added more than 700 workers to boost the plant's production capacity, which will rise from 150,000 units in 2012 to 180,000 in 2013.

Volkswagen is still working to boost the quality of its vehicles, which fared below average in J.D. Power & Associates' 2012 Initial Quality Study in June. The study measures a wide range of factors such as whether cup holders are adequate, which has long bedeviled the German car companies.

[Muddy]

YO mutha fucka! Im here for de JOB!

http://i.imgur.com/T1iw7.jpg

[PorkChopSandwiches]

http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/3AgIorLZnbA/hqdefault.jpg

[Hal-9000]

assembly line work.....


not that what I do is much better....but standing in 1 spot for 8 hours and doing something that repetitive would make me go the gun closet and start random target practice

[Arkady Renko]

Interesting approach, they wouldn't dream of recruiting that way back here. They hardly use any unskilled labour at all for assembly lines and most of the folks there went through a lengthy training of two to three years.


The study measures a wide range of factors such as whether cup holders are adequate, which has long bedeviled the German car companies.

Allegedly there are workshops at several german engineering schools about this problem alone.

"good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first day of our postgraduate class 'cupholder design for the US market'..."

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I was a supervisor at a glass plant, ran 24 hours a day. We would have to stand there loading boxes with glass for 8 - 12 hours a day. It was horrible. Once I got off the line and was supervising I would spend my time shit talking to the guys doing all the heavy lifting. Telling them to hurry up and that they were shitty and old. :lol: One guy had been there 25 years and I was in my early 20's, he was a big fan of mine :dance:

But, what else was I to do, we were all bored to death,

[Hal-9000]

repetition makes me go........:face:

[redred]

Allegedly there are workshops at several german engineering schools about this problem alone.

"good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first day of our postgraduate class 'cupholder design for the US market'..."

why did i think of octomom :lol:

[Hugh_Janus]

assembly line work.....


not that what I do is much better....but standing in 1 spot for 8 hours and doing something that repetitive would make me go the gun closet and start random target practice

wehrn I was in school, I went for a week of work experience in a factory fixing the machines.... even that was boring as fuck, basically waiting around for something to go wrong. The guy I was with talked to one of the line workers so I could have a go at what he was doing.... man, 10 minutes of it and I was pulling my hair out. :wha: The pay is pretty good though considering how little work you have to do

[Hal-9000]

wehrn I was in school, I went for a week of work experience in a factory fixing the machines.... even that was boring as fuck, basically waiting around for something to go wrong. The guy I was with talked to one of the line workers so I could have a go at what he was doing.... man, 10 minutes of it and I was pulling my hair out. :wha: The pay is pretty good though considering how little work you have to do

Like putting caps onto toothpaste tubes :lol:

[Hugh_Janus]

I couldn't be trusted to do that, I'd be tightening them up like a motherfucker :lol:

unscrew that, ya bastid! :mad:

[Hal-9000]

I couldn't be trusted to do that, I'd be tightening them up like a motherfucker :lol:

unscrew that, ya bastid! :mad:

It's from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (book) Charlie's dad worked at a factory that put the caps on :lol:

[KevinD]

I wanna work at a toilet paper factory. Swap the thin plastic wrap around the toilet paper with that industrial strength battery packaging. You know, the type you can't get open without a knife?:mrgreen:

[Shady]

I own a VW and I have to say initial drive quality was fantastic. Although I can see why they are on about the cup holders. Had on of the rear cup holders poke a hole in a cup while at Sonic. Cup was passed up to the passenger to get rid of it, only to have the passenger smash it into the window thinking the window was down.

[Arkady Renko]

so did you consider a lawsuit against VW ?

[KevinD]

Gotta say, my Mom's 03 Beetle convertible turbo, was the biggest POS I've seen since the 80's and anything GM.

[beowulf]

interesting

as someone who worked for the worlds largest car maker for 9 years i can understand why they like McD type workers,.....its the standardised work bit thats important, able to work to the same standard everytime, but you also have to be able to think and not be an organic robot.

its not as repetative as you might imagine. i was lucky as i wasnt a line worker but know from experience that they would work as a team of 4 all learning each others job and rotate throughout the day, they would then learn another teams jobs and rotate on that....keeps it different. also they dont just 'stand there'....lots of movement and stretching etc, was always said that an 8 hour shift was as good as a 2 hour session in the gym for aerobic exercise

[Arkady Renko]

Gotta say, my Mom's 03 Beetle convertible turbo, was the biggest POS I've seen since the 80's and anything GM.

I suspect it was assembled by former Burger King or Wendy's employees.