Answer to Question #247402 in Mechanical Engineering for Angelo

Question

The average Japanese autoworker makes around $8 to $10 per hour and each car at Toyota has about 30 direct labor hours in it. If the average US autoworker makes $20 per hour, how many worker-hours of direct labor are in the typical American car?

Answer 1

Throughout the Japanese economy, worker productivity increased at a spectacular 9.3 percent annual rate between 1975 and 1980, compared with 1.6 percent in the United States, according to the Japanese Institute of Labor. In 1977, the average Japanese auto worker produced 33 cars a year, compared with 26 cars per American worker and 16 1/2 for a West German worker.

cited the case of the small Datsun Bluebird, which is shipped to the United States in two models, the more luxurious of which, at $11,000 a car, accounts for more than 60 percent of the business.

so the total workers hours will be the 45 in the typical American car