Finally one other thing to consider, is that one of the things that made the auto parts train popular back in the 1970's was that in the regulated environment, it was advantageous from a rate perspective for the automakers to build outlying assembly plants (like the ones in California), and have the parts railed in. Once the industry was deregulated, it became cost advantageous to ship finished cars from the midwest/south instead. (plus the automakers "wised up" and realized in all but a few instances it was more cost effective to have models concentrated at a single plant instead of several).
chapmaja wrote:LJK004 wrote:I don't know many details about the line overall, but the GM plant, Pontiac Metal Fab, is only switched Wednesday evening, and most of the stuff getting shipped out is sent to Arlington, TX where they build the large SUVs (Tahoe, Escalade, etc.), nothing goes to Orion by rail. That being said, almost all the stamped metal going to Orion comes from Pontiac Metal Fab, but it all goes via truck. It just doesn't make sense, cost or time wise, to ship something 5 miles by rail. Orion, like most large manufacturing plants, is based on "just in time" delivery, so time is of the essence. A truck can be called, dispatched to Pontiac, loaded, drive to Orion, and be unloaded in 2-3 hours, whereas a railcar full of parts needs days. I've heard the lead time of the parts sent to Arlington is between 7 and 10 days.
As far as I've heard, Orion doesn't have any rail operations, either bringing parts in or sending completed vehicles out.
One more thing on the topic. The auto industry has never been able to duplicate the plastics industry in the way product is handled. The plastics industry has been able to develop a method of using rail cars to store product until it is used. The automotive industry has not been able to do this.
Imagine for a second a parts supplier who has a contract for 2000 car loads of automotive engines per year. That would equal 20 100 car unit trains of engines. The parts supplier could create a unit train of engines which could then be run to a location near the assembly plant. Those engines could then be transloaded to trucks on an as needed basic at the plant. Once the unit train is completely empty it is returned and another train would take its place. The customer (assembly plant) still gets what they want (JIT delivery), while the benefits of bulk transportation (unit trains) are still used.
The plastics industry has developed this perfectly. There are yards of nothing but plastics cars awaiting distribution. The cars act as a rolling warehouse for the plastic pellets.
The lumber industry used to work this way as well. Cars would be shipped to a "yard" awaiting a customer to be assigned. The car would make part of the trip simply in the general direction of the customer before being redirected to the actual customer when the purchase was made.