Ill tell ya a story also of being in the assembly plant in Husqvarna , Sweden..although it was back in 89. I was standing on top of the foremans shack..a place above for viewing over the entire assembly area. (one of the many )..
The assembly teams are around a circular table..with 6 to 8 persons on a team. in the center of the table, on a pipe like stand, is a sign holder, about 2 ft long..in this holder is a sign that represents the saw that is being assembled on that station, and it is a flip style arrangement, with several signs within..one that comes to mind is the one that had a red 670 sign...then copuld be flipped to a orange 266 sign...then to a yellow that i cant remember what number. When I asked my friend what that was all about, he replied that that is how the forklift drivers know what parts to bring in the tubs and set behind the workers. Cool I thought. on another table was a small saw tie-strapped to a hook above.. that looked like a model 40..but it had a black top cover..yellow chain brake...red crankcase..orange rear handle, and a really sexy dark blue plastic half wrap handle..I asked him what that was all about and he said just kind of a joke assembly that a worker assembled and told the management that they should sell em this away too!
The point is really..is management decides what saws are marketed under what label..and I can assure you that plant over in the town of Jonsered is just another building in the electrolux company. They do things kind different than we might think correct over here. For instance the complex in Husqvarna has many, many buildings there, and some products are made in an older way of manufacturing, and some in a newer fashion..depending on what building your in. during that same year, i was in the building that housed the new robot assembly line for the then new..262XP...no humans touched that saw after they loaded parts in racks along the line and when it was at the end ..it was a complete crankcase assembly minus the cylinder/piston.
The diversity of technologies are amazing to see over there as far as manufacturing goes..I drank a cup of coffee at break time many times with a fella that looked like he was about 150 years old, working in a small 200 year old building with what could of been a dirt floor for all you could tell, and after break he would go back to sitting at his bench in front of a vice that was older than he was , and continue to engrave the recievers on shotguns with a wooden mallet and a handheld engraving chisel!
you could leave his shop and walk directly across to a warehouse that held zillions of power equip parts and had all robot forklifts running up an down the isles fetching tubs for the workers from endless stacks, with no human workers anywhere in site!
AS Dennis says in his post above.."Who Knows", and im sure that they have built new buildings and have changed things since i was there last.
As most products designed today..in any market...current new designs are created with manufacturing effieciency as the number one priority..all other criteria take a lessor proirity!
