Faster production but no increase in volume | FerrariChat

Faster production but no increase in volume

Discussion in '458 Italia/488/F8' started by MalibuGuy, Jun 22, 2010.

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  1. MalibuGuy

    MalibuGuy F1 Veteran

    Sep 18, 2007
    5,892
    #1 MalibuGuy, Jun 22, 2010
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2010
    Ferrari announced that it will cut the waiting time for new cars by making them faster.
    In order to maintain exclusivity and value, Ferrari stated that it would not increase the total production number of a model.

    I don't quite understand how this can be. If you make the cars faster but don't increase the annual production, how exactly does that work?

    Or is Ferrari saying that total production for a particular model, ie italia, which would normally be delivered over 4 years, with sped up production be delivered over 3 years?
     
  2. clockem

    clockem Formula 3

    May 18, 2009
    1,141
    Chicago
    Full Name:
    Gary
    I will see my dealer later this week, can you let me know where you saw this? My dealer recently said they still plan to get only 1 to 2 458's a month. Thanks.
     
  3. jeff

    jeff Formula 3

    Feb 19, 2001
    1,924
    North America
    I guess it's possible to make a year's supply in 9 months instead of 12. Then lay off workers and idle the plant. Save money.
     
  4. jj525

    jj525 Karting

    Feb 8, 2009
    184
    Virginia, Florida
    This one is actually pretty easy. Total production is increasing but the total of a model is not increasing. This is how you can add production of the California without having to build additional capacity. 599 production will stay flat, 458 production will be similar to 430 production, 612 is flat so where does California capacity come from. It was not an issue when 430 production was in the build-out phase but now that 458 is ramping up they have to speed up the line. This will change a lot of things in the system for Ferrari and their suppliers, keep an eye open for quality issues.
     
  5. Ferraripilot

    Ferraripilot F1 World Champ
    Owner Project Master

    May 10, 2006
    17,850
    Atlanta
    Full Name:
    John!
    What happened to Montezemolo when he said Ferrari would not produce more than 4k cars per year
     
  6. CRAIGF355

    CRAIGF355 Formula 3

    Nov 13, 2005
    1,019
    NJ
    Full Name:
    CRAIG ANDERSON
    I'm thinking Ferrari is talking about the customer waiting time. Guys wait so long that they start look else where like Mclaren lets say or Lambo or even now the R8. There wait 4 or 5 years is not going to work with the new supercar market so they need to speed up the wait time to please the customer. There production has all ready jumped from the other years they have no choice but to up production to stay alive. Soon they will have a 5 model range cailf, 599, 612, 458, new Enzo and not encluding all the limited edition cars. So do be fooled I'm sure not they need to produce. Mclaren and porsche are not playing around there all going to be building some bad cars in the coming years and others such as aston and so on.
     
  7. smooth

    smooth Formula Junior

    Nov 4, 2005
    682
    And..... little 'old' Lotus, too. ;)
     
  8. Hexnut72

    Hexnut72 Formula Junior

    Nov 22, 2006
    331
    This is Ferrari marketing speak for "we are laying off workers but maintaining production by being able to make cars more efficiently."

    If you read between the lines it also means that the market for their product has slowed significantly so to maintain the brand (and it is all about the brand) they are building fewer cars more quickly than before.
     
  9. TheMayor

    TheMayor Ten Time F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Feb 11, 2008
    106,167
    Vegas baby
    Brillant idea if quality does not slip. For sure the 458 and CA are easier to screw together.

    I expect that production in 2012 will be made up of a lot of 458 spiders. The quicker they can make them, the quicker they can make up the pent up demand.
     
  10. MalibuGuy

    MalibuGuy F1 Veteran

    Sep 18, 2007
    5,892
  11. SCantera

    SCantera F1 Veteran
    Silver Subscribed

    Aug 4, 2004
    5,834
    Living Falls NC
    When I was at the factory on May 3rd I was surprised that the ratio of Calis to Italias was around 4:1. Clearly the demand is the opposite. Although I asked more than one rep why there were more Calis being built I never did get a plausible answer. My guess is that the Scaglietti plant was not turning out the chassis to meet demand.

    To cure the wait time for 458s the 8-cyl production line needs to swap the ratio to be 4:1 in favor of Italias over Calis.

    That would be the answer to shorten the time w/o increasing overall production numbers. By the way.....few 12s were in production. Mostly GTOs.
     
  12. VisualHomage

    VisualHomage F1 Veteran

    Aug 30, 2006
    5,611
    San Antonio
    My apprehension is quality control. Ferrari is already an Italian car that is still not as reliable as a mass-produced domestic or Japanese car.
     
  13. tazandjan

    tazandjan Three Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Jul 19, 2008
    39,174
    Clarksville, Tennessee
    Full Name:
    Terry H Phillips
    Quicker production means less cost per car to the factory and more profit. Porsche went through the same process a while back and brought in Japanese efficiency experts. The man hours to build a 911 dropped like a rock with no loss in quality. In an economic downturn, a good move and one likely to keep the bottom line healthy.

    Taz
    Terry Phillips
     
  14. andrew911

    andrew911 F1 Rookie
    Silver Subscribed

    Sep 8, 2003
    2,894
    Northern NJ
    And those are the 911's no one wants as much...maybe the initial buyers like them- lots of lease for 3 years then dump, but then the resale drops on them drops like a rock- good cars for the value, but much of the "original" distinctive Porsche personality is gone and as such the value to many of the old school porsche fans. The japs started with the rear suspension on the 993 (1995-1998), but by the 1999 911 it was over- plastic interiors, thinner gauge sheet metal, not to mention poorly made motors...became more like a "regular" car.

    I don't mean to say the porsches aren't good cars, but there is a reason I went from driving 10 year old 911's for the past 20 years now to ferrari- something was lost.
     

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