Verification of model year change

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

So it was sold 13 months before it was stamped?? I like it.

Sorry mine is a L4 serial not LA. I need reading glasses

 

[Rusty Klunker]

Manufacturing accountants refer to what you are talking about as W.I.P. It's Work IN PROGRESS. It's the cost of the parts inventory, and the lead time the parts needed to be ordered, or built, in order to keep a large assembly factory running at a smooth speed. You can bet that one of the "bean counters" knew the exact number of lefthand fork ends were in that barrel. He just could not care less about what serial number was stamped on them.

You cannot build several thousand bicycles "every work day" in one factory without a lot of planning. Remember, this was before we had special apps and laptop computers. The engineers used slide rules, not a CNC program. Planning was with a paper and pencil.

The Schwinn factory was very organized. It just became a bigger job of forecasting the parts needs as the lead time became longer as more bicycle parts companies closed down in the United States and bicycle parts had to be sourced from Europe and Asia.

John

I did invite two seasoned members into this thread from the get go because I value there opinions,... and you saw this operation.
Myself, I've installed assembly lines in a few car plants. They were awesome jobs! They were fast tracked and the automation was amazing! I was there through the job into startup working alongside the engineers, just a fun interesting job.

My first one was at GM Boxwood Rd plant. I walked in and its a city,.. a large city! But this place was empty, nothing a ghost town! The tractor trailers were rolling in all day non stop and two months later Malibu's were rolling off the line. Nothing I've worked on has gone together so fast, and with accuracy.

And there were many times I wondered who thought of this stuff, and how did they do this back in the 60's, 50's, 40's... . Who thought up an engine... and it worked!

Yeah, I would have loved to walk through the Schwinn plant.