Toyota is the Most Productive Automaker but US Automakers Are Catching Up

A new study by Harbour Consulting has announced that Toyota is the most productive automaker, since it only takes Toyota 29.93 hours to make a car. Nissan came in second with 29.97 hours and Honda came in third at 31.63 hours.

The study compared six automakers that have plants in North America.

The domestic automakers are catching up to the Japanese with GM at 32.36 hours, Chrysler at 32.9 and Ford came in last at 35.1 hours.

According to Harbour Consulting the difference between the most productive automaker and the least productive is 5.17 hours. That gap equals about $300 per vehicle, which favors Toyota. The gap has shrunk since in 2004 it was 9.1 hours and in 1998 it was 16.6 hours.

The main reasons that the gap between the automakers has shrunk this year is because Toyota’s productivity has worsened by 1.8 percent from 2005, which was mainly due to new models that were introduced.

Honda, Chrysler and GM all had better than 2% improvements in productivity.

The “Big 3” automakers are expected to make even more gains this year.

How much does productivity matter when the number of recalls have gone up?

Full Story: MSNBC

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