A century ago, the world's most state-of-the-art automobile assembly plant sat on the banks of the Grand River in Lansing, Michigan. There, with an innovative process called "progressive assembly," Ransom E. Olds and his employees were able to churn out 2,500 curved dash Oldsmobiles in 1902. Before that year, manufacturers made only several hundred vehicles a year. It would be another 11 years before Henry Ford started employing a moving assembly line to mass-produce the Model T.

Today, the state capital is the site of yet another groundbreaking car factory—General Motors' recently opened Lansing Grand River manufacturing complex.

"This is the most significant auto industry plant in the last 25 years," says Dr. David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "It's as state of the art as anything you'll find in the world. With its emphasis on lean and agile manufacturing, Lansing Grand River represents a paradigm change in the industry." The facility is the first all-new factory constructed by Detroit-based General Motors Corp. in the country since it built the Saturn Complex near Spring Hill, Tennessee in 1986.

According to Gary Cowger, president of GM North America, the plant "embodies everything we've learned about lean manufacturing. The production system is lean, fast and flexible in order to respond to an ever-changing market." The $560 million plant cost about half as much as manufacturing facilities of comparable size, and, when fully operating, employs fewer than 1,500 workers—about half the labor force of other GM plants.

Unlike any other GM plant in the country, the new flexible facility is capable of building five different vehicles—both cars and trucks—at a time, giving GM the ability to respond rapidly to shifts in customer demand and to modify products according to market developments. In contrast, conventional auto plants rely on fixed tooling that can usually build only two or three models of a design of either cars or trucks.

The innovative plant embraces flexible manufacturing, employing robots, conveyors and other equipment that can be reprogrammed to assemble a variety of vehicles, from two-seat sports cars, to four-door sedans, to pickup trucks. Additionally, the factory builds both domestic and overseas-bound vehicles on one assembly line, manufacturing right-hand and left-hand drive models simultaneously.

"Lansing Grand River has the ability to easily absorb other vehicles into the plant," says Cole. "That gives GM the ability to run the plant all the time. They can use a variety of products to juggle different things, depending on the market. And production can expand with little impact on existing operations."

Setting the factory apart is its configuration. While traditional car plants are generally contained under one roof, Lansing Grand River is made up of three separate buildings—the general assembly building, body shop and paint shop—all linked by conveyors. This set-up allows for multiple loading docks on all sides of the facility, making it easier to receive just-in-time parts delivered by off-site suppliers. The buildings are "configured for efficient material flow and to provide an optimum layout for operators," says Cowger.

In the plant's body shop, 338 programmable welding robots perform 2,163 welds per vehicle. In addition, over 50 programmable adaptable assembly system (PAAS) robots—each roughly as big as a basketball—act as locating devices, placing tools and clamping parts in the right position for different-sized bodies. Lansing Grand River is the first GM plant to use this adaptable system in full production, which enables it to accommodate different body styles on the same line.

Its paint shop is also noteworthy because it's the first GM facility to house all paint production processes on a single floor. In conventional paint shops, operators are stationed over four floors. Additionally, instead of relying on an elevator system that can attract dust, the paint shop depends on a slow-moving conveyor that goes up on an incline to bring the car body to the paint oven.

The general assembly building is also configured to boost process efficiency. Shaped like a T, the building's layout helps streamline material handling. The assembly line moves along the inside of the T, with every conveyor close to the outside wall. Because of the building's long, narrow shape, delivery trucks can unload parts at outside doors close to the spot on the assembly line where the parts are used.

"This direct-to-the-line delivery system eliminates expensive build up of inventories as well as multiple handling of materials," says Bob Anderson, a 35-year GM veteran. The plant's 58 loading docks can receive as many as 350 trucks a day from nearby suppliers that assemble and sequence modules. "Sequencing allows the operator to go to one single point to get a component," continues Anderson. Furthermore, automated material handling systems transport parts directly to the point of use, minimizing the need for forklifts, which in turn alleviates congestion and the probability of accidents.

Indeed, by supporting lean, agile and flexible manufacturing, Lansing Grand River allows GM to quickly react to market trends. In fact, operators and management are so confident in the plant's configuration that they are aiming for a 17-hour production target per vehicle—one-third less than the industry average of 26.4 hours per car. And, says Ron Harbour, president of Harbour and Associates Inc., a manufacturing and management consulting firm based in Michigan, "The way the plant is set up, they can get there."

Source: Flexible Factory Reveals Future of GM
Austin Weber
Assembly Magazine, May 6, 2003
http://www.assemblymag.com