My tour started with the body shop. Everyone has seen the automotive robots that assemble cars. Now image hundreds of them, all working in symphonic union, moving, mating, and welding parts. As they worked, sparks were occasionally flying while workers feed raw materials to the robots. It was fascinating to watch the precision and dexterity of the large powerful robots!
We then skipped the paint booth due to the complications that we would cause and moved on to final assembly. This is where all of the parts came together on the production line to make a car. We watched a large automatic robots, conveyors, and workers worked seamlessly together to build roughly a car every 60 seconds. The facility as a whole was very clean and quiet, which was quite a surprise.
The GM plant also served as an excellent opportunity to see in action everything that we have been learning about lean production, TPS, and operations. It was great to see everything from our books in playing out on a daily basis.
In the afternoon, we had a opportunity to learn how GM employees are trained. We worked on their training production line where they have wooden cars to simulate how the production line works. We worked through problem solving, work balancing, and continuous improvement. It was a great hands on experience and a very fun way to interact one on one with the GM employees that train the line workers every day.
I had never been to a car manufacturing plant before, and the visit to GM gave me a new perspective of the company. I was overall very impressed with their operations, leadership, and overall product quality. The workers were proud of what they did, and they did it very well.
After our day at GM, we then headed to the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan for dinner with GM employees and current Ross students. It was an enjoyable evening meeting the Ross students and hearing presentations regarding the Chevy Volt.
As far as the tour, the overall pace has increase a bit. Early flights and late nights defined the second week as we approach the final day at Ford.
