British Leyland video

[alanjay]

The fact that the board of British Leyland commissioned and funded this film says a lot about British Management.
It's supposed to encourage workers to consider their attitude to quality of the finished product.
Did the management ever consider what the consequence would be if their customers or competitors saw it.
If you've got 30 minutes to spare please watch it all the way through and then post you're comments.

I know my views on this film, would appreciate other peoples opinions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTCfJKNE2hg

[jonathan63]

He used to do the Cornflake adverts back in the day.

Happy days they were. Simple life.

[OddSox]

You only have to look at what happened in SHEFFIELD in the 70's

Finest steel makers and silver smiths in the whole world. Next thing your pair of scissors has 'Made in Koria' stamped on them and they last 5 minutes.

A sad sad sign of the times.!

[thundercat]

Even so far forward from when this was made the concept of Quality Control remains the same, ok it may be fully automated now as compared to the labour intensive production of that era, but the customers expectations are much higher now. Although the modern car is far more sophisticated than even ten years ago, the customer is not interested in this when their car goes wonky, in fact, people are less tolerant because they are continuously being told that every thing that they purchase "must be perfect" so they expect this. As we know the word "perfect" in some cases in not attainable.

[MGBJM]

An interesting video (once all the 1970's nuances have been filtered out,) thanks for posting.

My own view is that it shows the potential for what could happen if everyone has 'a bad day at the office' or 'drops the ball', and to be honest I would be surprised if some other manufacturers didn't have similar training materials to highlight that the construction of a vehicle is a serious process and mistakes really do have the potential to cost lives. It's almost ahead of it's time in terms of the 'blame culture' frequently spoken of today. I would like to think that aspects of the film are exaggerated for effect- I have no idea whether managers really did allow lathe operators to read the newspaper while operating machines or if designers thought putting their coffee cups on plans was a great idea- but I would like to think not.
The overall message is not subtle, and the final shocking accident clearly designed to impact mostly on the presumably mostly male workforce- the casulaties could be any one of their girlfriends, babies, grandads or wives. I think it is quite powerful in that regard. In a sense it reminds me of a training film that was mandatory viewing for a retailer I used to work for, in which an elderly customer is left locked inside a burning building because of failure to follow procedure, starting with a small oversight that increases in severity with every subsequent error.
It does seem to show that British Leyland feel they have a problem with discipline perhaps, and the admission that the production line is out of date and too small is odd- as is the admission that the workers are given barely enough time to complete a task in the first place. Again, odd, and I agree with the OP's comment that had a competitor or customer seen it, that part of the film would have been a potential nightmare. The production also shows BL feel communication and understanding is a problem in their plants- and any search of YouTube will show there was precious little of that taking place on the lines of Allegros, Marinas and Princesses....

Other than that I haven't really had any thoughts on it

[alanjay]

Thank you MGBJM for taking the trouble to view the entire film and then posting a well reasoned comment.

[Anon3]

I never saw that film, probably because I was under 18 as an apprentice at Castle Brom at the time and it wouldn't have been deemed suitable

Some well known faces in there weren't there?

So what do I think?
It just goes to show that whenever you involve people in a process, there's every chance things will go wrong.

Fwiw, I remember the first time I walked into the XJ6 body shop and was shocked at how the blokes there had to work.
The press shop was even worse and literally reminded me of the war.
Even at a young age, it seemed like there was a massive lack of investment and it's no surprise the Japs were producing better cars.

That said, I could mention a Jap car company not so far from Birmingham, that has also suffered a lack of investment of late.
The people in the weld shop there are so de-moralised that the turnover rate of staff is around 20%, from what I've been told.
No wonder, as they're thrashed to near death in what looks like the black hole of Calcutta.

I'm actually impressed that BL could knock a car out every two minutes.
I won't go into detail, but the latest state of the art automated line can't cut that in half.
It's no wonder British cars were so poor though.

But I'm not convinced BL were the absolute worst, as all companies had similar problems, what with management/worker relations at an all time low.
It really was a case of "them and us".

One theme ran through the film for me and it's the point that people did at least try.
I don't believe anyone wants to do a poor job.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, Alan.

[MangoMan]

Surprised anything could have gone wrong with Hercule Poirot in the drawing office...lol.

[Seafrost]

What that video says to me is, HOW did they get the Allegro to go that fast?... I must have driven mine far too slow.

I do miss the days when "items" appeared to last longer.....but did they? My old wooden tv was always needing repair, my old cars always needed welding or filler. Even washing machines were not as reliable?......

Today I personally find "from the east" items actually last quite well. But I have changed what I buy.. my washing machine is a top of the range LG with direct drive. My TV is an LG Plasma... with 5 year parts and labour warranty... which has had a complete new screen due to a line @ 4 years old. My car is a Rover 75 Tourer......and still outshines all others in the Supermarket Car park

[Anon3]

Originally Posted by 75tourerSE

What that video says to me is, HOW did they get the Allegro to go that fast?... I must have driven mine far too slow.

I do miss the days when "items" appeared to last longer.....but did they? My old wooden tv was always needing repair, my old cars always needed welding or filler. Even washing machines were not as reliable?......

Today I personally find "from the east" items actually last quite well. But I have changed what I buy.. my washing machine is a top of the range LG with direct drive. My TV is an LG Plasma... with 5 year parts and labour warranty... which has had a complete new screen due to a line @ 4 years old. My car is a Rover 75 Tourer......and still outshines all others in the Supermarket Car park

All Items last well these days.
It just depends how you class things.

I bought a decent Washer from Hotpoint a good few years back.
It was a load of rubbish.
I then went to top notch foreign, in Bosch.
Also a load of rubbish.
So now I'll buy a cheap jobby and throw it away, as it seems the industry wants.

The fact there, is that washing machines used to last donkey's years, because they made them properly.
The problem is, if things last, there's no future sales to be had.

As for the Allegro, the 1750 TC was a 9 second motor.
Well fast in it's day and much loved by me, as a bit of a "Q" car.
But Jeez, it was poor, looking back.