Assembly Planbook - July 2008 - (Page GM-21)

were needed. The old Fremont facility relied on parts that were shipped by rail from GM stamping plants in the Midwest. The joint venture eventually proved to be a success. The ﬁrst NUMMI automobile, a Chevy Nova, rolled off the line in December 1984. Assemblers began building the Toyota Corolla in September 1986. Within 5 years, NUMMI operated as efﬁciently as Toyota’s Japanese plants. A few years after NUMMI production began, GM teamed up with Suzuki Motor Corp. (Hamamatsu, Japan) to build small cars and sport utility vehicles. The CAMI Automotive Inc. (Ingersoll, ON) assembly line opened in 1989. The NUMMI plant pioneered justin-time inventory and parts replenishment, assembly line quality control through kaizen, an emphasis on teamwork that required multiple skills, and close cooperation between operators and management. Today, it continues to assemble Corolla sedans, in addition to the Pontiac Vibe crossover and the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. Spring Hill A “new kind of assembly plant” cropped up in a ﬁeld 30 miles south of Nashville, TN, in the mid-1980s. Production of Saturn sedans began at Spring Hill in July 1990. During the 1980s, GM spent 8 years and $3 billion dollars developing a new brand and a different way of building small cars to compete against Japanese automakers. The goal was to use startto-ﬁnish innovation, such as plastic body panels, to produce a sporty family of subcompact sedans. According to GM chairman Roger Smith, Saturn would be “the key to GM’s long-term competitiveness, survival and success as a domestic producer. We expect it to be a learning laboratory. We also expect that what we learn with Saturn will spread throughout GM.” The Spring Hill plant served as an incubator for several cutting-edge ideas. One of the most radical new concepts was the role of labor and management. As a result, the plant boasted of having the lowest absentee rate in the auto industry. “Saturn represents a profound change in the relationship between the union and management, and an equally profound change in the way Because the Spring Hill plant was so ﬂexible, assemblers built both standard and high-performance engines on the same line. Congratulations G E N E RA L M OTO R S 1 0 0 Year Anniversary on Your STA N DA R D CO R ROS I O N P ROT EC T I O N …on the majority of ACE's industrial shock absorber and feed controller threaded outer tubes. EXTREME RUST BUILD-UP Outer tube without Weartec Plus! Decelerate Loads / Prevent Impact Damage Improve Product Performance Increase Cycle Speeds / Reduce Noise Farmington Hills, MI 48335 tel: 800-521-3320 fax: 248-476-2470 e-mail: shocks@acecontrols.com acecontrols.com www.assemblymag.com ASBGM07084Ace.indd 1 6/5/08 3:48:28 PM ASB09074RStech.indd 1 | July 2008/ASSEMBLY | GM - 21 8/3/07 11:31:28 AM http://www.rstechltd.com http://www.rstechltd.com http://acecontrols.com http://acecontrols.com http://www.assemblymag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Assembly Planbook - July 2008

Assembly Planbook - July 2008 Contents Editorial Quality in Assembly Station to Station Assembly Lines Assembly in Action Surviving the Roller Coaster The Human Side of Manufacturing Do Your Fasteners Need a Preapplied Thread-Locker? Manufacturing Innovation A Century of Progress Trendsetting Plants Pulse Tools Get Smart Plastics: Design for X Product Reviews Products Advertisers Index Classified Leading Lean

Assembly Planbook - July 2008

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