No one is blamming the Spanish workers for striking, I was just wondering if they know specifically what they are asking for. The French workers, for example, knows that they are asking to stop changes planned by the Sarkozy government. If thet are asking for lower taxes on gas as Danf suggested, it would make more sense.

I wonder if the net effect would be that companies will look elsewhere for more reliable suppliers in countries where there is no effective union – guess where?

The most effective driving force for energy conservation is pricing, as we are seeing now. If anyone has a effective strategy for lowering long term fuel price in the world, you can have your pick of any top cabinet position of any country in the world or have the chair of Goldmen Sachs. (saying “please, please, please use less oil” does not constitute a effective strategy).

But you also miss my point entirely. The idea of JIT inventory control has some very direct economic benefits. You have to buy less stuff cause you don’t warehouse as many parts. You don’t need as large a physical plant because you don’t need to store as much stuff, and if you find a fault in a design or a production run you have less inventory to rework or scrap. But you’re open to this type of work stoppage. The business trades a lean, lower cost operating model for increased exposure to outside supply issues. If Minis Oxford facility had a one month supply of parts on site, no matter where from, then a two week delivery upset wouldn’t do anything to production.

And it’s all gonna get worse. There is a “work to rule” and other strikes starting up in France today….. If French truckers and the rail system gets screwed, like it looks is sure to happen, then even if the Spanish made the parts and put them on trucks, they wouldn’t make it to England quickly anyway.

Want to do something about it? I bet each and every one of us could do minor changes on the margin to conserve about 10% of our energy footprint. If everyone did that, most, if not all, of the energy pricing pressure would just dissapear. I guess it’s just easier to complain though…

Matt

Most people only pay attention to purchase price pressures, driving lots of the globalization and outsourcing all in the name of reducing the costs of production. Very few think about the non-linear calculous of risk mitigation, supply line security and the like. The fact that stikers in a different country can bring down a factory in England is a perfect example of this, just as the Delphi strikes that slowed GM prodcution about a year ago were.

Matt

I hope our govt is poised to help us out of this muck. But, with their current track record I’m not holding my breath. There’s a lot of short term thinking. Lets drill for more oil, let’s promote ethenol, etc…I sure hope the current administration is not kept in power. But, it seems from recent polls, people have not learned their lesson.

There’s got to be an old MG facility in say, Abingdon, that BMW could buy and refurbish to make more parts. With Rover having closed a few years ago, there’s a lot of highly skilled British autoworkers able to produce most of MINI’s parts in the UK. With the cost of freight and fuel, it would make sense to source locally.

Happy Motoring, Jack

Matt

I see people protesting against high fuel prices and I wonder what are their demands? Aren’t feul prices set by global market forces? Are the truckers in Spain demanding the whole of Asia to use less oil, the dollar to be stronger, and new “easy” oil field to be discovered immediately? Or are they asking for something the their government could actually do such as tax breaks and subsidies?