GM invests $1B in upgrade

The plant upgrade should help Lordstown boost quality and productivity.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
LORDSTOWN -- General Motors expects more than just shiny, new Cobalts from its Lordstown complex. The plant's $1 billion upgrade should bring improved productivity and quality as well, said Dan Flores, a GM spokesman.
The plant has been improving in both measures in recent years, but there is no end goal in manufacturing today, Flores said. Manufacturers must continually improve or they will be passed by competitors, he said.
Quality gains at the Lordstown plant in recent years have been evident in the J.D. Power and Associates' Initial Quality Survey. It measures the number of problems reported during the first 90 days of ownership.
The number of problems per 100 cars made at Lordstown fell from 163 in 2000 to 135 last year.
The Chevrolet Cavalier, which used to be made in Lordstown and at a Mexican plant, ranked 11th out of 15 cars in the compact car segment last year.
Flores said the union and management has a done a "very solid job" of improving cars made in Lordstown, considering the last major upgrade of the car line came for the 1995 model year.
He declined to say what quality targets GM has set for the Cobalt but added that GM expects any new car to post better-quality marks because of new engineering.
"We're not looking to incrementally improve quality. We're looking to improve quality by leaps and bounds," he said.
GM looks at quality in two other ways besides initial quality, he said. There's long-term quality -- how a car holds up over two or three years -- and perceived quality, he said.
Improvements
GM officials are confident that their cars are improving in both areas and are working to convince people of that, he said.
Flores said perceived quality is tricky to measure, however, because it involves pleasing the senses of a car buyer -- a nice-looking interior, the smell of the leather seats, the sound of the door closing.
Customers have so much choice in the market today, however, that each new product must be quality-made, no matter the market segment, he said.
Tom Mock, a plant spokesman, said the use of work teams at Lordstown is improving quality.
The team concept includes small groups of workers rotating jobs and conferring with each other to solve production problems. At team meetings, workers are given information on safety, cost, productivity and other performance measurements.
Also, workers are encouraged to write down problems they find when building a car. Mock said Maureen Midgley, plant manager, has insisted that workers get an answer for the issues they write down.
Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, said managers are listening to feedback from the workers, who are doing what they can to make sure the Cobalt is a success.
Flores said a key to improving quality at GM plants has been its Global Manufacturing System.
Quality products
The main focus of the plan is doing what's necessary to help a plant operator make the highest quality product in the most efficient manner.
It calls for simple changes such as bringing tools and parts closer to workers to reduce movement, but it also has high-tech components such as systems that notify a worker if a wrong part is selected or if the right torque isn't applied to a bolt.
While the main goal of the Global Manufacturing System is improving quality, it also helps boost productivity because it leads to less unscheduled overtime and less time spent repairing cars, Flores said.
The management and union at Lordstown have done a good job of finding ways to increase efficiency at the plant, he said.
The Harbour Report, a widely watched industry report, shows that the plant has cut its number of labor hours per car from 27.66 in 2000 to 21.38 last year.
Flores said GM expects the productivity of the plant to improve once full production of the Cobalt is under way, but he declined to give out specific numbers.
The Cobalt will be made with fewer workers than the Cavalier. New stamping presses in the fabricating plant, for example, require fewer operators. Also, new car designs always include engineering that makes them simpler to build, Flores said.
While employment at the Lordstown complex has dropped significantly over the years, finding ways to build cars smarter -- not eliminating jobs -- is GM's main goal, Flores said.
Lordstown employs about 5,500 hourly workers, compared with about 9,900 in 1995. Employment has been reduced as workers have retired.
shilling@vindy.com