The line chart illustrates the time taken to manufacture vehicles by four US-based car manufacturers from 1998 to 2002.
Overall, production time decreased in three of the four companies, and Nissan had the largest fall. In contrast, Ford was the only company that showed an increase during the period.
In 1998, Nissan had the highest production time at about 35 hours per vehicle. After that, the figure fell quickly to just over 20 hours in 2002. General Motors also decreased steadily from around 32 hours in 1998 to about 24 hours at the end of the period. Daimler Chrysler stayed almost the same at about 31 hours for several years before dropping slightly to around 28 hours in 2002.
By contrast, Ford followed a different trend. Its production time rose slowly from approximately 25 hours in 1998 to nearly 28 hours in 2002, which was opposite to the general downward trend of the other manufacturers.
