Paintshop during production, what criteria ?

[SteveandKelly]

There's one thing that we would really like to know is how were the decisions made as to what colour was used during the painting process and when ? Did they simply go by orders from customers and painted accordingly, or were colours used on a weekly basis ? Was there only the one paintshop at Cowley ? The DVD 50 Golden Years does show the Paintshop but apart from the chap who handpainted the coachlines there was no details of the general practices. Info anyone.....

[taupe]

Hi

Have a look at this from the Mini production line

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkTDCOQB-rg

[Dean]

Fortunately I work in the car industry, so I can comment about todays practices:

Choosing the colour.
Firstly when choosing say a green, they will spray half a dozen cars in lots of different shades. These shades will be similar to the way the fashion is heading. For example pastel greens are quite fashionable at the moment.
They will then invite a large group of gents from the worlds dealerships to view them and choose which ones would sell.
A decision is then made by the design director on which green to use.
These dealers will then be asked what percentage per year of your annual sales can you sell of this green.
The supplier of the paint can then be told how much of this paint will be needed per year.

Morris would have known historically how strong sales would be in green during certain months in the year, depending on which countries the cars were going to on a particular month. Say the UK love green and 50% of the cars sold to the UK were green, if for example during June the UK production allocation was 70% of the total build, then 35% of the cars build would have been green. These days a dealer can change the colour of an ordered car literally hours before it goes into the paintshop, but back then I guess this facility wasn't available.

This would have applied to all the factory options, so the factory knew exactly how many to make or order in and for when.

You'd be surprised how predictable we all are when it comes to ordering something. There would have been instances I guess, where they would have made too many of one colour and not enough of another at some point. So the customer would have had to wait longer for a car or had to have one from stock, but not necessarily the colour they really wanted.

Has that answered your question or do you want to know more about actually painting the car?

[SteveandKelly]

Wow !! Thanks Dean,I figured there would be someone from the Industry out there ! Thankyou for taking the time to write such a comprehensive reply.
Thanks to Taupe as well for the link....

[bmcecosse]

Thanks for the Mini links! Assuming the same paint process was used -you can see that MANY spray guns are used - and so colour change would be a major disruption. My guess is that at least a full week would be on one colour - with clean/change at the week-end.

[pao7psb]

When I first joined the car industry one of the first questions I asked was how we chose how many of what colour to build - I was told that we'd build 20% in yellow, and when 20% of what we sold was yellow we'd know that the sales rate for yellow was 20%....

[Dean]

you can see that MANY spray guns are used - and so colour change would be a major disruption. My guess is that at least a full week would be on one colour - with clean/change at the week-end.

Not sure how it was done back then Bmc, but these days where I work there are 16 different colours in the palet, so sixteen different paint feeds are stationed by each operator. There will be two spare feeds to be used for prototype colours or limited editions. The same gun is used for each so, at each paint colour change a blast of high pungent cleaner is shot through the gun before attaching to the new colour. Probably takes about 5 seconds to complete.

Up until recently as the dealer can change the colour of the car literally seconds before the body passes a sensor into the paint shop, every car in the line could be a different colour. Therefore the operator could be changing the colour something like 74 times an hour, a cost reduction excercise was undertaken therefore and the cars are now sorted into colour batches. This resulted in a saving of over £5million worth of gun cleaner per year!

The guns and equipment are cleaned at the end of every shift. When a colour is no longer to be used and is therefore run out the paint supplier comes in bills us for the obsolescence (paint left over at their plant) and spends a week cleaning out all the pipes and tanks that fed each operator with the old colour. Then fills it all up with the new colour. We then take the obsolete paint and flog it to to people like unipart, halfords or anyone willing to make little touch up pens.

[Mogwai]

The same gun is used for each so, at each paint colour change a blast of high pungent cleaner is shot through the gun before attaching to the new colour. Probably takes about 5 seconds to complete.

Up until recently as the dealer can change the colour of the car literally seconds before the body passes a sensor into the paint shop, every car in the line could be a different colour. Therefore the operator could be changing the colour something like 74 times an hour, a cost reduction excercise was undertaken therefore and the cars are now sorted into colour batches. This resulted in a saving of over £5million worth of gun cleaner per year!

Has the computer ever gone wrong & changed the colour halfway through a car

[bmcecosse]

I just don't see BMC being THAT well organised! So many spray guns in that Mini film....... It would be a major exercise to change colour for them. But then again - they didn't need a 'cost/value' exercise to tell them frequent colour changes were a waste! They just used common sense.

[Dean]

The difference these days though Bmc, is as soon as the first panel is welded together it is given a Vin number and there is a customer on the end and the car is given a delivery date. This customer could be a dealer ordering their quota for the month or an actual customer with a home address. If it's a dealer ordering his quota, he needs the ability to change the spec or what options the car is loaded with (this includes the colour) as close to him receiving it as practically possible. This is because a customer will walk into the dealership and order a car at some point, the dealer will amend an order he has previously place. So technically in order to meet your delivery date, you have to paint the cars in a specific order. Painting in batches can effect the delivery date, upsetting your end customer. Painting in batches can make the car arrive a day later than planned. I guess although batching cars 40 years ago saved cost and was common sense, there wasn't the pressure to satisfy a car being delivered in 'X' show room in 'X' country at noon for pick up by Mr Yamatoka who had arranged cover for his shift after buying the car and taken the day off work to collect it.

[Dean]

Has the computer ever gone wrong & changed the colour halfway through a car

It does happen I believe, mainly in the repair booths. Some of the shades can look very very similar under light conditions, operators can accidentally connect the darker grey gun instead of the lighter grey one or vice versa. So around the paint shop the car goes again.. and another written warning issued!

[Sidney'61]

Has the computer ever gone wrong & changed the colour halfway through a car

VW Harlequin comes to mind!

[stevey]

it was originally a demo to show what colours were avalable and people just wanted one pianted that way!!!