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Building quality cars and
trucks takes a lot of coordination. About 5,277 active NUMMI team
members do everything from making, moving or ordering parts to paying
bills; from programming computers to issuing paychecks; from engineering
to performing maintenance. Each of these tasks is essential to a smooth
operation.
But the crux of what we do at NUMMI is take thousands of pieces of
metal and plastic and assemble them into a new vehicle and we do it
more than 380,000 times year. That monumental task is performed by
the team members who work in Car and Truck Assembly.
Car Assembly
Have you ever tried to put together a bike or
jigsaw puzzle? Just imagine trying to convert 2,500 metal and plastic
pieces into one of the best-built cars in America!
Fortunately you don’t have to, because NUMMI has experts assembling
your new Toyota Corolla or Pontiac Vibe. In fact, we’ll complete
two of them in the time it takes you to read this.
Welcome to Car Assembly.
This department builds about 400 cars per shift, or one every 60 seconds.
When a car body leaves Paint, it first passes through an inspection
station where team members make certain the paint job is flawless
before accepting the vehicle. The doors are removed to make it easier
to move in and around the car during assembly and to prevent dents
and scratches.
The vehicle proceeds through a series of Trim workstations where team
members begin by installing weather stripping, moldings and pads.
Then they put in wiring, vents and lights.
After an instrument panel, windows, steering column and bumper supports
are added, it starts to look less like a shell and more like a car.
A rear axle, assembled in another area of the plant comes next.
Trim finishes up by attaching items such as the emergency brake, gearshift,
speakers and radiator.
After a 28-point quality assurance check, it’s on to the Chassis
line. This is where many safety-related items are installed. Things
like brake lines, torque, gas tanks and power steering are double-checked
by electronic fail-safe devices known as poka-yokes.
The engine is installed, along with the starter and alternator. Then
come suspension and exhaust systems.
From there the vehicle enters the Final line, which covers many interior
items such as the console, seats, carpet, glove box and steering wheel.
This is also where bumpers, tires and the battery are added, as well
as finishing touches like covers and vents.
Finally the doors - which have been traveling down a separate line
receiving trim, wiring, panels, handles, locks and windows –
are reattached. The doors are adjusted to fit properly, all of the
connections and fluids are checked, and the body side moldings are
added.
At this point, the vehicle has spent about 6.5 hours traveling through
over 200 workstations in Assembly. Now it will be handed off to Quality
Control for a final check before it’s shipped out to its new
owner.
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Truck Assembly
If you think Truck Assembly is the same thing, you’ll be amazed to
learn just how different it is from Car Assembly.
Trucks are complex. The car is all one piece (unibody), but the truck
has separate parts: the frame, cab and deck, along with variations
in each of those parts.
Truck Assembly went through many changes in preparation for the redesigned
2005 Tacoma, which launched in September 2004. Many major transformations
to the plant took place, probably the most NUMMI has experienced in
our 20 years of existence - costing millions of dollars in new equipment
and training.
The 2005 Tacoma pickup truck is bigger (nearly 5 inches longer and
over 5 inches wider) and offers more safety features and strength
than previous generations. It also offers more selection, with 18
different model configurations (cab, drivetrain, engine and transmission)
and many new features. There’s more passenger room, cargo volume and
towing capacity than before.
The truck assembly line is about a half a mile long. At full capacity,
NUMMI produces over 300 trucks per shift, or one every 85 seconds.
We only stamp parts for the cab at NUMMI. Frames are delivered every
hour from Stockton and beds come daily from Baja, California. The
beds come pre-assembled and pre-painted and are sent to assembly in
the proper color sequence to be added to a matching cab.
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