I feel for you hvac. I recently started working as an assembler in the north-east, and thankfully I have not run into any quota mention from any of my managers. It seems to be so long as I keep the bike rack with just a few holes here and there, they don't say anything to me about it. However I think that we would be unable to even sell 30 bikes a day except for on big retail days. Generally when I come into work, I see anywhere from 5-10 bikes having sold. So I end up making anywhere from 5-10 bikes a day, but generally it is more on the side of 5 bikes a day average, and this keeps the bike rack stocked enough that the only holes are there simply because we don't have that type of bike in stock.
I had actually seen your first thread on this forum, mentioning about the training, and I will say that what you went through is pretty accurate. For me it helped that my father is heavily into bikes, so when I lived with him, I gained bicycle knowledge from him, so a lot of it has come back to me in the month that I've worked as an assembler. So I never actually read the manuals of these bikes.
Since the store I am in knows that their bike sales are in that range, they use the assembler position really as a "whatever needs to get done". For those that don't know, Walmart has a system where managers program through computers the tasks for those that work in the store, their coverage areas, what they need to do for the day, etc. However as assembler you never have any tasks. Not even "Build bikes", this is so that they can at any point take you off to do something else, without there being a conflict.
Even though I build roughly 5 bikes a day, it takes all day to do it. Not because I am slow, but because I build a bike, then get taken to put on something else, finish it, build half a bike, something else, finish that, build another, then pulled to do something else. This is not even counting assembling power wheels, grills, furniture, and whatever random things need fixing. Thankfully though, with the slow sales of bikes at my Walmart, I am allowed to really put the effort in to the bikes to make them, well, as safe as is possible.
The thing that mostly gets to me about this position, at least so far. Is that the area used for assembly is being over-run by non-assembly related merchandise. Clothes, housewares, electronics, displays, whatever needs storing when they don't have the space to store it elsewhere. This makes the area cramped instead of open. The other thing is the customers themselves. They are not so bad to deal with when they are looking to buy a bike. However, the thing that amazes me is that about 20% of the people who I directly interact with when they are buying a bike, end up returning it with something stupid. I do not know what people expect for the price of the bikes at Walmart, really, you buy one at Walmart, you should be aware that they are not going to be the greatest things! You can actually make a cheap bike from Walmart last quite a while, but it pretty much requires that you don't do stupid things with it. I cannot count how many times in a month that the customer service desk has accepted bikes and sent them to me that have all of the following: 1. No receipt. 2. Dirty. 3. Pedals and crank damage, being reported as the reason why they are returning the bike. 4. Obvious signs that the bike has been ridden hard, such as a teenager using it for jumps, tricks, etc. I am amazed that the service desk accepts these bikes, I am not sure why they do not decline the request of these "customers"!
I see a bike as a personal responsibility item. If you do not take care of it, a $1200 bike will fall apart if you do stupid stuff with it. Same for a $100 "bike". So why be so surprised when you break something that costs $100 from doing stupid ****? I think that the reason they accept these back is because they would rather just accept them back than deal with any possible "Walmart bike injuries", even though mis-use of the product should not be at fault of the manufacturer/assembler/retailer.
hvac I think that you got shafted in your experience as an assembler at your local Walmart. Was there actually 30 bikes a day going out the door? Was the bike rack barren? I mean, managers have asked me "how is the bike rack looking" I'll give them the "looking okay, need to fill a few more holes" and they will generally leave me alone the rest of the day to make bikes, but the most I have ever put together in a day was about 15, and that was all-day making bikes without interruptions. And yet, the bike rack is still full. I have spoken with a number of previous assemblers who moved to other areas in my Walmart, and it seems that management now has the attitude with me of "Okay, let's not piss off another assembler, if they keep the rack stocked, and we can get them to do some other stuff here and there, we'll keep this one." And personally, if they don't piss me off or pull quota bullshit with me while pulling me off to do random-jobs, I'll be happy in the position. And hopefully I'll make my goal of actually putting out "decent" Walmart bikes. I know they are terrible, but I want people to get what they pay for at least, but they don't pay much, so there is only so much I can do to make sure the bikes are any good, when the materials are what they are.