Written by Jim Slider

1986

In 1986, we were getting our asses kicked. We were not competitive with the Japanese's automakers and could not match their quality. We were learning and occasionally stumbling. Some changes had occurred at Plant 3 in Lansing, our major and medium press lines were upgraded to Danly Pick-and-Place automation. A press line that had previously needed ten people to run required only three or four. As a result, many people took early buyouts and many others were transferred.

For the first time Lansing would be producing cars for three different companies. The Pontiac Grand Am, Buick Skylark and the Oldsmobile Omega (later Alero).

Changes

Suddenly we had robots, a huge new press line, welding robots and two new welders. The monstrous 950 line was better than a year in building. It was a transplant from a closing plant and came with double rolling bolsters, automated clamping and worked in coordination with the robots. It would produce a raw finished fender. It was our most advanced metal stamping press line in town. Each manufacture chose redundant sets of Pick and Place arms and fixtures. We had learned in the 70's that cookie cutter cars were unacceptable to the public. Even so, some places could have used common parts, and reduced costs. All the problems GM faced were apparent with this press line and its final products.

Terminology

I should explain the importance of some of the statements I just made.

• Metal stamping requires huge machines to form metal. Forming these fenders required five basic steps. Blanking produces a rough outline of the part, in this case was preformed on another machine. They were called 'blankers', but could produce a finished part if it was simple enough. Our battery trays were stamped on a blanker.
• The initial shaping is called forming. The 950 press was a double action toggle, meaning it had an inner ram. That also made it the slowest press in the line. It was still capable of six strokes per minute.
• Our next operation was a 'trim' press, which removed excess material called offal. The offal dropped down to the scrap conveyor and was shipped out of the building. It was sold for reprocessing.
• Every fender needs holes installed for attachment to the car and installation of the hood hinge. This is called piercing. The holes are also scrapped out.
• The most complicated operation is bending the metal. After the holes were pierced the metal required bending to mount it on the car. In this case you had a slopping body line that required following and producing a ninety degree bend and then another right angle for mounting. This required two presses for a 'flanging' operation. Then a final trim.

Competitive Advantage

The double rolling bolsters allowed pre-staging of the next parts dies. They were capable of moving the 50,000 pound dies over fifteen feet on air pressure as the other bolster moved out the die of the finished run.

This was tremendous advantage over the other press lines in town or the company It was our competitive advantage and helped in the competition (see picture).

Those pictures show another advantage the line had. BOC-South was still using manual operations. That is why this die setter has a four-foot long wrench.

Automated clamping required a flip of a switch to secure the die in place. This saved a minute per press.

A few years later, one of our single bolster lines successfully beat the time of the south side plants.

Problems

These advantages were negated by other problems. The computer was originally specific to each fender and required forty-five minutes to change out the program. The pick-and-place arms and fixtures were also specific to each fender. They were not organized and just tossed in a bin until the next use. Then the crew wasted time sorting them out and trying to place them in the right station. We hadn't learned to use slotted fittings as the Japanese did.

When I originally reported to truck the line a die change was about an hour and ten minutes. At twenty dollars a fender, the loss was approximately 400 fenders or $8000. That does not include labor man hours involved. Changing a press line is an expensive operation that eats away at your gross margin.

Harbour Institute

In early 1986, the Harbour Institute issued the Quick Die Change Challenge. We were requested to participate by higher management. As I'm sure were several other plants we decided to accept. The South plant also accepted. They faced a problem of classifying the press lines. They finally settled on three classifications Manual, Semi-Automated and Full Automation. We were classified as full automation. The south plant was manual.

As the contest was from good part to good part, both ends of town felt comfortable with part quality. You are seeing a picture of our 'green room' which was able to detect very minor imperfections. This meant a decision on change timing, as the green room had final OK of the part.

Invitation

The contest was announced in the Building 304 conference room. The production crew, die setters, quality control, skilled trades and belatedly myself. After the letter was read, one of the die setters wanted to know what a trucker had to do with a die change. I said "I have two responsibilities in a die change. One, place the proper blank on the line and two, don’t run over any slow die setters." This probability shows another problem we had, realization that we were all a team facing the same risks was missing. It took several years for more people to realize it

Prior to the contest acceptance of a suggestion was to build wheeled carts to hold the pick and place arms and fixtures. Although the initial sorting out took some time our die change time dropped twenty minutes.

Problem Solving

The problem of the computer program was discussed and EDS said they would look at it. Buick fenders, according to quality control, were our best and the most consistent high quality fenders. Work was ordered on a couple of dies that were consistently hanging up the clamping. My other contribution to the discussion was to find out if they all would get a copy of the magazines, we would.

We then went into a tune up mode. Any problem was heavily scrutinized, and corrected. This carried over to the other dies as well. The first time we tried the new computer program transition it worked.

Oops

Everything was running well leading up to the contest. Our general foreman decided we should have a dress rehearsal. Three days before the contest we tried everything, including filming the process. This line ran smoothly 98% of the time, but not today. I drove down to see what went wrong. The internal clamping on the toggle malfunctioned and the inner ram failed to descend. Curtis, our blank loader, saw this malfunction and stopped the line. The outer ram was slotted and you could see the inner die hanging diagonally in the press. I looked over at the general foreman who had a sick expression on his face.

"A bad dress rehearsal makes for a good show."

"I hope your right," he said.

Showtime

The day of the contest I think they emptied the offices, and a camera crew was up on the catwalk. As the final panel went down the line every time a press hammered the panel more eyes moved to the guys with the stop watch.

Game

The final panel dropped on to the conveyer and moved to the overhead conveyor and the die change started. The hissing of the air clamps and the whirring of the bolsters shattered the silence in the rest of the plant. Three minutes plus, the first panel was ready to start down the line. I heard several people yell "Go baby go”. The panel had to go through seven dies and nine fixtures before it would reach the conveyor. Our sheet metal inspector waited to take it to the green room. At ten minutes and thirty-three seconds, he snatched it off the line. It is the first time I've seen an inspector move that fast. In a minute the word was back, it was a good fender and it was met with celebration.

We had done the best we could. We didn't win that year, but we rang some bells.

We could compete.

After Glow

We got our magazine and few months after the contest we meet Jim Harbour. Jim and his son were there and said they were very proud of our efforts. The day of our attempt he was judging another contest. They were down for unscheduled maintenance (They broke). Jim, the plant manager, and the local shop chairman were sitting in the office as the fax arrived.

The chairman of the shop committee asked, "What is World Class Performance?" Jim had the honor of telling him what we achieved in reply to his question.

Reflection

Our time meant we lost sixty-three fenders or reduced our die change losses to $1260 a saving of $6740.

The people who won that year ran a transfer press and we would get one in four years. They were not the scheduled line, but were included because they said they would only use four people. When you compare that to the crew we used, that is tremendous cost reduction. It was also noticed that heavy automation was the wave of the future.

That plant is gone and so is its shining history. But when the world and we needed to know we could compete, it started there.

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