truck line assemblers

[Redline novdog]

I would like to hear/read the stories told by actual Chevy/Gmc line assemblers. If there is already a thread on this please let me know and move this one. I am a production assembler at cat. No where near the volume of car/truck production. I would like to open this up to hopefully capture some of the production anomalies . I have read some of the corrections for build purposes,but haven't heard of day to day build scenarios.

[Husker]

Yes this would be a neat deal. To bad they didn't have a How Its Made from back then or a documentary.
Ron

[toolboxchev]

You are definitely onto something here. You obviously know your first article inspection how do you think that applies.

I will give you an example. I have owned both a 72 1/2 ton and now a 1970 3/4 ton.

I have had more problems with the 1970 than I ever had with the 72. The 72 manufactured during the oil crises had numerous first article scribbles inside the engine compartment and under the dash.

GM had implemented more gas saving measures and emmissions requirements in the model year 72.

My 70 I have body screws going in on an angle and no markings period.

If production went down, quality naturally would go up, was this the case? Did government regulation and gas saving play a part?

Think about it. It could be just the plant in my case, I will never know, I do not have the 72 anymore.

[mike16]

maybe contact them through the union.

[toolboxchev]

Check out this pic I just found on this forum. Look at the firewall.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...+gmc+barn+find

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Redline novdog

I would like to hear/read the stories told by actual Chevy/Gmc line assemblers. If there is already a thread on this please let me know and move this one. I am a production assembler at cat. No where near the volume of car/truck production. I would like to open this up to hopefully capture some of the production anomalies . I have read some of the corrections for build purposes,but haven't heard of day to day build scenarios.

I've been with GM for 37 years, in assembly and product engineering, across 6 generations of full size truck. Please check out my build/intro thread:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926

Also: Old wive's tales compiled from a bunch of guys about working for GM: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=556607

And growing up in a Pontiac racer's family: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524. Dad also worked for GM for 32 years, starting in 1955.

Those should keep you busy for quite a while.


K

[Keith Seymore]

I haven't watched these (I was looking for something else), but:

How a Chevy Silverado is Built (Oshawa plant) Part I:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXHZAteE3BI

Part II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqWi571Iy_I

Part III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQViE2IR8Js


GM Manufacturing Part I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_wLx3hF6oY

GM Manufacturing Part II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw9mB9Lf2X4

[KRamsey07]

Originally Posted by Redline novdog

I would like to hear/read the stories told by actual Chevy/Gmc line assemblers. If there is already a thread on this please let me know and move this one. I am a production assembler at cat. No where near the volume of car/truck production. I would like to open this up to hopefully capture some of the production anomalies . I have read some of the corrections for build purposes,but haven't heard of day to day build scenarios.

Hey i work at Cat too for the global mining side in denison texas

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by toolboxchev

Check out this pic I just found on this forum. Look at the firewall.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...+gmc+barn+find

...

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=sequence

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

[Redline novdog]

Thanks Kieth Seymore I'll dive into those when I get home tonight.
I build the relatively new(6yrs.in production) D7E electric drive tractor

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Husker

Yes this would be a neat deal. To bad they didn't have a How Its Made from back then or a documentary.
Ron

There was a documentary (or GM publicity series) called "Pontiac Pours it On for 1970". I have links to youtube but they don't seem to be good any more and I can't find new ones by searching.

I'll keeping trying to find that. Although it's passenger car production it is period correct and would apply to trucks, too.

K

[Keith Seymore]

"Squarebody" assembly photos:

http://www.73-87.com/7387info/Assembly%20Line.htm

Click on the image for a larger version. Make sure and scroll down for insightful commentary.

K

[Redline novdog]

This is what I build. Thank you Keith Seymore for the links.I checked out the square body photos.Excellant! I being an assembler know that markings are personel signatures!!!. We mark for torque on the tractors,but this is today.I don't have the time to bring up all the links Keith Seymore has provided.I hacve to be to work at 4:30AM. also took up time cleaning the work car,ran over a deer at 5:30 am today.I'll get to them,love to hear the stories.

[Redline novdog]

sorry for the late reply.Toolboxchevy that truck of your Grandpas is what alot of us chase everyday.That is a museum peice!!!!!!!!!!!

[Redline novdog]

KeithSeymore I have read a few of the threads you have supplied.I can relate to all!! Priceless information!!!!!
The articles about the GTO. You can say been there lived that! Way cool.
Would like more. I realize the workforce from back then is aging.If your dad/grandpa,Mom/grandma build these Icons,bring their stories forward! Please!

[KRamsey07]

Originally Posted by Redline novdog

Attachment 1447099
This is what I build. Thank you Keith Seymore for the links.I checked out the square body photos.Excellant! I being an assembler know that markings are personel signatures!!!. We mark for torque on the tractors,but this is today.I don't have the time to bring up all the links Keith Seymore has provided.I hacve to be to work at 4:30AM. also took up time cleaning the work car,ran over a deer at 5:30 am today.I'll get to them,love to hear the stories.

Thats a sweet rig check out a MD6640 MD6420B thats what we build here the 6640 takes 13 semis to haul it out of here !!

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Redline novdog

KeithSeymore I have read a few of the threads you have supplied.I can relate to all!! Priceless information!!!!!
The articles about the GTO. You can say been there lived that! Way cool.
Would like more. I realize the workforce from back then is aging.If your dad/grandpa,Mom/grandma build these Icons,bring their stories forward! Please!

Thank you. For me it was dad, uncles, cousins, mother in law, brother in law and friends.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) that's 70 years of combined first hand experience between just me and dad. That's a lot of daily grind to pull stories from, and one can't just "free express". There's got to be some conversation or some context to draw it out.

So - you'll need to pick a topic or get a conversation going in order to get the juices flowing.

K

[Redline novdog]

KRamsey07 that's some heavy duty drillin' rig!! At bldg ss the part I love is the D-11's pounding along the aisle's Shakes everything!!!

[Redline novdog]

The first thing that comes to mind is? KeithSeymore any info on the end drive(rolloff). the ones that went to repair!

[Redline novdog]

I realize the plant had a shutdown(we call it Hillbilly 500).How did the new model introduction go? Smooth as silk I'm sure LOL!

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Redline novdog

The first thing that comes to mind is? KeithSeymore any info on the end drive(rolloff). the ones that went to repair!

Pretty much every truck went through repair. It's fairly rare for one truck to squirt through the whole process without an issue somewhere.

Trucks would be started for the first time at the end of the main line, where they would sit on the flat truck (moving forward) and warm up a bit.

From there a driver would hop in and drive it directly to one of the roll test booths (there are usually between two and five booths). In this area the driver tests everything out: running it through the gears, brakes, all the lights, turn signal, radio, etc. He would note any defects and after he is done would drive the vehicle to one of the “short repair lines”, where simple stuff can be fixed while the vehicle is moving down on a line. If there are serious repairs required, like a frame swap or an engine swap, then there are “heavy repair stalls” where major repairs can be done while the vehicle is stationary.

There are also paint repair lines, where paint defects can be fixed in a similar fashion.

Also – there are repair stations at the end of every foreman’s area on the line, so it doesn’t just wait for one big inspection and repair process at the end: it is happening all along the production process.

If you read my intro thread you may recall my truck had a couple repairs on the motor line: changed the oil filter out and fixed a cross threaded clutch closeout bolt. At the end of the line I allowed the driver to take my truck across the roll tester, where he found (1) back up lamps not working and (2) wrote up the A/C charge (to make sure I had a good one). The back up lamps were repaired on the short line and I bought off on the a/c charge (because I didn’t want them fooling with it).

I drove the truck off the end of the short line myself and over to the shipping building where it left the plant early Tuesday morning.

K

[Keith Seymore]

One other thought: if you looked at Jeff’s pictures on the 73-87 site you can see a photo of the “back yard”. Those are all the trucks still on property and can be either ready to ship or going through the various repair processes.

Vehicles could be “flagged” for various repairs by the way the vehicle is parked (ie, facing towards the building or facing away) and where the repair ticket is stuffed: ie, jammed in the vent window might mean one thing, stuck in the door handle something else, and stuffed under the windshield wiper something else.

God forbid some young student get out there and put the ticket back in the wrong spot, messing up their system.

Vehicles can sometimes get lost back there and then turn up at the next model change when the lot gets thinned out and the backlog worked down.

If you drive past Flint Assembly today it still looks like that (different trucks, of course).

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Redline novdog

I realize the plant had a shutdown(we call it Hillbilly 500).How did the new model introduction go? Smooth as silk I'm sure LOL!

Model year changeover/new product launch varies with the amount of new content and with the personality of the launch team.

I remember when the ’87 trucks were coming out with TBI and I thought “….man! I’ll be glad when this is over!”. It seemed like so much new technology.

On the other hand many of the years we did a “rolling model change” where the line never even shut down. Usually the last truck would come through with a handmade sign in the window (ie "Last '78) and they would skip a space on the carrier and then the next truck would have a sign ("First 79") and that would be it.

Sometimes they wouldn't even start the VIN sequence over at 0001....it would just keep climbing.

K

[Keith Seymore]

I was just thinking the other day about an incident we had on the Volt program.

In the Hamtramck plant the first place the new content would hit would be the IP line, where the dash assembly was built up and the instrument cluster, radio, HVAC controls, etc, would be installed. We would hang out there in order to get an early look at how the options were broadcasting.

One time I was standing there with my plant host, the plant planner, and the line stopped. Having grown up on the assembly line I’m a bit sensitive to when it goes down so I cut into our conversation abruptly and asked “why are we down?”

“Uh – we’re on break” he said, looking around nervously.

“Good” I said. “I wanted to make sure it wasn’t my fault”.

HA HA, right?

In about two minutes one of the other engineers comes running over, all in a huff. “SEYMORE!” he says. “We’re not on break; we're down on the IP line and IT’S YOUR FAULT!”.

A bit surprised at this sudden change of status I sauntered over and there was a crowd of neckties around the radio install. The line superintendent (the foreman's boss) was there and took the opportunity to show boat a bit by ripping me a new one about engineering changes, and how stupid engineers are, and how disruptive temporary changes are, etc. It was in that supportive environment I had to figure out what was going on. It seemed that one of the inspection features had the line shut down, the symptom being that as the operator tried to scan one of the bar codes the reader didn’t recognize it as the right part and stopped the line. After a couple minutes I asked her to show me what she was doing.

“I’m scanning this” she said “but it won’t go.”

That’s when I noticed she was scanning the wrong bar code; Operator error. I showed her the uplevel part number and code and when she hit that with the laser reader “…whirrrrrr” everything spun back to life. The crowd quietly disbursed and everybody went back to whatever they were doing.



I just thought it was funny that it was "wasn’t my fault/was my fault/wasn’t my fault". Do you suppose I ever got an apology from the superintendent for improperly (and incorrectly) dressing me down in front of a whole passel of plant and engineering personnel? Hmm?

K

[Keith Seymore]

So - having shared that - let's talk for a minute about the whole "the line never stops" story.

I will admit that host assembly plants get very upset, with a righteous indignation, when visiting engineering teams accidentally shut down the final line. However, during the launch period the plants are given some "allowance" because Central Office knows there are going to be a few line stoppages while problems are worked out.

Also - line stoppages on the "feeder lines" or back in body shop/paint are common and do not affect the final line (much) because there are buffers in place to allow final to run while the body shop/paint shops are down (sometimes enough of a buffer to run for several hours). I spent the summer in Wentzville the last couple years building pre-production van bodies down the production assembly line and we stopped the line frequently while we would cut in/cut out various subassemblies.

Having said all that: I honestly don't think I ever pushed the button myself to shut the line down, even as a "wet behind the ears" 19 yr old production supervisor. It can be pretty lonely standing there at 5:58 am with just you, your quality man and one or two of your best guys hanging around. But - if you are patient - the line will chug at 6:00 am and move about one job length before someone else chickens out and shuts 'er down. By then you can see the rest of your workers, quick stepping down the aisle, tying their aprons and putting their gloves on while in motion. They can catch the job they missed, the one in front of them, and the next job, and be sitting reading the newpaper before the line starts back up in earnest.

K