Ramos Arizpe
From 1982 to 1986, I was privileged to be the 2nd plant manager at Ramos Arizpe Assembly Plant. The plant was built by manager Joe Delorio and 50 GMAD (GM Assembly Division) people assigned as ISPs. This band of daring and resourceful men was headed by Bob Sackerman and Dale Johnson. Under my watch there were a number of incredible achievements that should never be lost in GM's history. Among them were:
1. Building the X-car (Citation), A-car (Celebrity and Century) and G-car (Monte Carlo and it's Super Sport version) down the same assembly line, in random mix, and all four car lines documented by the GM audit teams as being at a higher level of quality than any of the U.S. plants building single platforms.
2. The plant was built and capacitized at 10-12 cars per hour. With no capital, the plant team did a bottleneck elimination and in four months we raised the capacity to 25 cars per hour.
3. With an appropriation of only $14 million, we brought the El Camino from Arlington into Ramos, for the first GM car to be exported from Mexico. The last El Camino rolled off the line in Arlington, in June and our team took down, packed and shipped all tooling to Mexico. Set it up, trained our workforce, ran trials and started full production six months after the last El Camino rolled off the Arlington line. Further, our first GM audit of the vehicle was at 131, a number never achieved on that vehicle at Arlington. In order to make the timeline, two extreme gambles were taken. There was not sufficient down time to install the sub floor tanks and returns in the paint shop. Our solution was to tunnel under the floor and pour all of the requirements while the current production was running over the hollow concrete floor slab. We propped the floor up from underneath with tree limbs and prayed we would not hit a rock bank while excavating. The second hurdle was installing the recirculation system for the required water test booth. We dug the floor out from under the floor conveyor and supported the conveyor tracks with tree trunks. We called the result "the bridge over the River Kwai", for obvious reasons.
While I consider these three achievements at the top of the list, there were many other "challenges" operating during the early years in Mexico. I spent 36 years in GM, car side and component side, in many different management positions. Never have I experienced the type of challenge that my band of GMAD IDPs faced up to and conquered. Hopefully some of them are still around to add more to this page. Hopefully, some day, recognition will be given to this hard working group for their incredible achievements and "Can Do" attitude. It could well serve as an example to help lead us as we face our current challenges.
Bill Hempel
Manufacturing Manager . Cadillac
Plant Manager. Ramos Arizpe
General Manufacturing Manager, Rochester Products
Business Unit Director, AC Rochester