The line graph illustrates the required time (in hours) for production of a vehicle by four distinct US-based car manufacturers – Nissan, Daimler Chrysler (DC), General Motors (GM), and Ford – for a four-year period, spanning from 1998 to 2002.
Overall, there was a significant decrease in production time for all companies during the given period except Ford, which saw an increase in production time. Nissan achieved the shortest production time comparing to the others by the year 2002. Daimler Chrysler, however, had the smallest decrease as opposed to the ones who experienced the same trend.
In 1998, the longest production hours that was required was in Nissan Company, taking 37 hours per vehicle, while cars of Ford were created in 25 hours, which was the shortest time-period among all the manufacturers. The other two companies, GM and DC, took nearly the same amount of time, 32 and 34 hours respectively. By 1999, three companies – Nissan, GM and DC – would manufacture one car in 30-32 hours, whereas the production time for the Ford remained static (25 hours).
In the year 2000, we can observe significant changes in the chart. While in DC the production time did not change, and in Ford it went up to 26 hours, other two manufacturers witnessed noticeable declines in production times, with Nissan reaching roughly 24 hours and GM reaching slightly more than 28 hours per car. By 2002, three manufacturers – DC, GM and Nissan – managed to shorten their production hours, while Ford started to require more time to manufacture their cars. In this year, Nissan needed only 21 hours per car, whereas others required slightly more, with GM around 24 hours; Ford 26; and DC almost 29 hours, being at the top of the list with the longest production hours.