You are right in some aspects, but fall short on others. The 15 an hour
salary is not bad for production. And by all means hire a few at that top
brackett and a dern good lead for more if you have to. But benefits can come
in time if successful. Rome was not built in a day. People looking for a
career , especially where there are few choices may jump on the chance to
have an opportunity...if the biz is successful and they were there from the
get go ..I am sure most people realize it puts them in great position for
advancment when the company has proven a money maker. And the benefits come
in time. Wasted labor sure, that is why I mentioned it earlier in the
thread...can em! FAST! Fix it right off the bat.
Seems folks are having a hard time understanding that there will be a
huge difference in time required in building a light sport plane versus a
757 or a DC-10. We are talking a very small space needed ..one decent hangar
and a small crew to start up with. Let the biz grow if it will, but if you
think you have to start out as large as say a Boeing Corporation you will
fail.
I remember when John Deere was opening a plant in Grovetown GA they had
a training class through the GA Dept of Labor. I am sure the Labor Dept paid
for alot of that , just to get folks jobs....it may be something for a new
aircraft production facility to look into. Be a great way to teach and weed
out slackers at the same time.
Supervisor, as I have said....you would be the boss, with one lead in a
15-20 man shop...I am sure someone with the smarts to design a plane can
figure out how to run a payroll for that few people. Again...as the company
grows let it.....don't start it to big. Well taxes come out of the employees
checks, but you do have to pay the workers comp stuff on them which can be a
pain in the rear.
I have 3 rollaways, I don't know of many mechs(production or line) that
do not have their own tools..and other than specialty tools and expendibles
most places want you to have tools.You would have a cost in drill bits
etc...but that is not labor that is tooling cost. Just as building a jig is
tooling cost and not labor cost. It all adds up on the plane but we have to
keep expenses seperate and where they belong in order to see where
improvements can be made. Heck I would be a good guy and buy each production
mech a new Campbell-Hausfield drill and a surplus rivet gun!
But if anyone was costing me 45 bucks an hour personally on labor they
would be rolling their box to the door...just don't see it for such a small
plane. Fellow where I live built a Zenith 601 in three months by himself
and had never done sheet metal work! It's not hard to put one together, and
with some practice you get very good and very fast. Building those first two
planes would be that curve, they will be the planes that are not in a hurry
anyway.

Patrick
student SP
aircraft structural mech

"Jim Carriere" wrote in message
...
W P Dixon wrote:
Yes Jim,
You are wrong, I've worked in the biz for over 20 years. And you know
what! Most places hire Joe Smoe right off the street and show him how to
shoot rivets and put him or her on the line.....shocking isn't it.

OK, but I think you're missing a few points:

1) The shop is not entirely brand new people.
2) There is labor not directly put into assembling the product (training,
supervision, management, payroll).
3) There is some wasted labor (employess who turn out to be no good)
4) There is cost of labor in addition to the hourly wage (taxes, benefits)
5) Other miscellaneous expenses (keep the lights on, pay off machinery and
tools)

This is why, even if an airplane can be built with 500 man-hours, the cost
to the company will be much higher than the $10-15 an hour paycheck that
the Joe Smoe gets.