Less is More - Produce - Lear Corp. puts the interiors into GM's Chevy Express IT and GMC Savana SIT in O'Fallon, MO

Automotive Design & Production, August, 2001 by Christopher A. Sawyer

Take one stripped-out full-size van, a satellite assembly plant, a union workforce and more electronics than went to the moon, and what do you get? The largest second-stage manufacturing project in the industry, and an entree into the booming aftermarket for both GM and Lear.

Every day, there are a number of GM full-size G-vans--the Chevy Express/GMC Savana--coming off the line at the GM Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri that don't have any interiors, save a corrugated cardboard driver's seat mounted to a standard seat base. It's not that some of the people in the plant forgot to install the seat, headliner, audio system, etc. They are bare because they will be transformed by Lear Corp. into the Chevy Express IT and GMC Savana SIT luxury vans just 10 miles away at the supplier's satellite plant in O'Fallon, MO. This is no ordinary 'cut and shut' operation you'd find at a third-party outfitter. Each vehicle carries a full GM factory warranty, is fitted with OEM-spec. materials on a moving assembly line by union employees, and is accepted by GM as one of its own. Given Wentzville's sheer size, it's a surprise that a satellite plant is necessary. However, the political fallout from OEM and Tier 1 union labor working side-by-side for different wages is a problem no one has managed to solve. So the work is done offsite.

Mike Bakaric, operations manager at the O'Fallon facility, conducts the tour. His background includes time at Ford's Rouge plant, Visteon's Chesterfield, MI, trim plant, and a stint designing and building the interiors for nuclear submarines in Newport News, VA. He doesn't look old enough to have done all these things, but it takes little time to realize he's not one to sit still for long. "GM and Lear signed the contract to produce the vans in July 2000," Bakaric says. "And [plant manager] Kurt MacLennan and I arrived in Missouri in September 2000, and had 70 days to get the O'Fallon plant into production." A bare plant was ready in October, and the first units came off the line on December 1. The first customer unit (the initial vans went into GM's evaluation fleet) was produced on the first day of February.

"The plant has 190,000 [ft.sup.2] of space of which 170,000 [ft.sup.2] is dedicated to manufacturing," says MacLennan. "We have 500 ft of assembly line, 150 ft of off-line build area, and one day's inventory. Subassemblies are built in cells that feed directly to the line at the point they are needed in the assembly process, and everything is keyed by the vehicle VIN number so the parts are ready when it reaches that station." O'Fallon is far from over-extended, and it's no secret that other derivatives are in the planning stage at GM and Lear.

The empty vans from Wentzville arrive in batches and are parked in the O'Fallon receiving lot. Inside, the staff determines work flow based on VIN numbers received from Wentzville. instead of building vans in batches of the same color, O'Fallon pops them out on an as-received basis. This keeps its production in sync with Wentzville's. The vans are driven from the receiving lot, up a ramp, through a door at the side of the plant, and straight into a wash area. "This keeps the assembly area clean, keeps us from tracking dirt into the vehicle, and preps the panels for the cladding installation," says Bakaric.

Almost immediately, the van makes a sharp turn over a set of pipes set into the floor. The tire sidewalls squeal as they rub against them as the van is pulled into position. "Those pipes are there to make sure the vans are lined up in exactly the same position each time," says Bakaric, "and don't move when we drill the holes and install the subfloor."

The subfloor is a large square-section tubular structure that ties into the vehicle frame, and provides the mounting points for the seats in the passenger compartment. A large, Lear-designed fixture is guided into place through the rear door opening, and fed forward until it comes into contact with the front seat mounting bolts. Using these, the lines in the floor, and a guide pin as locators, the unit is lowered into place, where it drills 16 mounting holes simultaneously. As it is backed out, small brooms at the front of the fixture sweep the metal shavings off the floor of the van. The approximately 250-lb. subfloor is then put in place.

The van is driven directly onto a lift where two workers fit large washers and nuts to the 16 protruding bolts, and drive them home. The torque reading for each nut is recorded against the VIN number, a process that continues at each stop along the assembly line. "We can track everything down to the part number," says Bakaric. This way, any recalls can be tracked to a specific vehicle or group of vehicles, and tracked to the assembler, part lot number, and supplier. Once off the lift, the van enters the main assembly line.

Sound deadening is added in the areas to be occupied by the Bose speakers (there are 12 of them), along the floor, and even in the right front fender to block wind noise. By the time the next cell is reached, 16 sound deadeners have been added to the wheelwells, floor, and inner door and side panels.