40+ Years - An Employee's Reflections
Forty-plus years; Wow……how time flies. I never dreamed I would spend 98% of my entire working career at General Motors.
I hired into Pontiac Motor Division, in Pontiac, Michigan in March of 1965. There must have been a hundred people in the line for an interview that day. Never-the-less, I was hired and assigned to Inspection in the vehicle assembly plant, because the interviewer could read my writing.
While I moved around within Inspection for the next eleven years, I quickly developed a passion for quality. But quality was not a priority back in the 60’s and 70’s and I was in constant conflict with management over the volume of issues I wrote up on a daily basis.
Because of my passion for quality I applied for an apprenticeship in Product Engineering as an Assembler and I began going to school to fulfill the requirements of the trade. In 1976, I was accepted into the apprenticeship of choice.
After the apprenticeship was completed, I was asked to consider going on Salary to become a Vehicle Build Coordinator. With my passion for quality as my driver, in 1982 I became a build coordinator and began my salary career, creating parts lists and following builds from those lists of parts in the engineering build garage.
Because of mergers between Chevrolet and Pontiac engineering, I was transferred to the Warren Tech Center in the mid 80’s where I continued as a build coordinator.
I had been attending Oakland Community College for years because of the apprenticeship. In 1993, I was ready to begin work on a third Associates Degree and decided I may as well get my four year degree instead. I applied for an accelerated degree program through Spring Arbor College, and in the spring of 1994 I received my Bachelor’s degree.
In 1999, I accepted a transfer to Saturn as a Mock-Up Coordinator. But a new round of consolidation sent me back to the Warren Tech Center after only three months. While I still coordinated the work activity in a Mock-Up room, I was assigned to a group that was launching a new technology within engineering.
This new technology fit right in with my passion for quality and for the next six years I put together and conducted math reviews for various platforms, with a software package called VisMockup.
In 2006, my EGM asked if I wanted to remain where I was or transfer into the VAS (Vehicle Assembly Structure) team. With my passion for quality as strong as ever, I chose the VAS team. (Surprise, surprise to my EGM.)
So here I am getting close to retirement reflecting on my time at General Motors, as we are preparing for the 100 year celebration of the company.
It is with great pride that I tell you I have few regrets. This is a great company doing great things as we look forward in time.
I have been able to see my passion for quality embraced without compromise by the entire corporation, before my retirement, and I wish nothing but the best for General Motors as they complete their first 100 years and enter their second century in business.
Thank you to General Motors for providing me and my family with the where-with-all for a great quality of life over my 40+ years as an employee of the company.
Roger L. Stone
Sr. Project Engineer
SIGMA VAS Designer & Coordinator
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