New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. ( NUMMI ) is a car manufacturing company in Fremont, California, jointly owned by General Motors and Toyota that opened in 1984 and closed in 2010. On October 27, 2010, his former factory reopened as a 100% production facility of Tesla Motors, known as the Tesla Factory. The factory is located in the Fremont East Industrial area between Interstate 880 and Interstate 680.
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Overview
NUMMI was established at the former General Motors Fremont Assembly site closed in 1982; it has been a GM factory since 1962. GM and Toyota reopened the plant as a joint venture in 1984 to produce vehicles for sale under both brands.
GM saw the joint venture as an opportunity to learn about lean manufacturing from Japanese companies, while Toyota acquired its first manufacturing base in North America and an opportunity to implement Taylorism-inspired production systems in the American working environment, avoiding possible import restrictions. GM employees went to Toyota Takaoka's factory in Japan and increased production at NUMMI, Spring Hill, and other sites, especially after Jack Smith deployed the program.
As of May 2010, NUMMI builds an average of 6,000 vehicles per week, or nearly eight million cars and trucks since it opened in 1984. In 1997, NUMMI produced 357,809 cars and trucks, peaking at 428,633 units in 2006.
GM withdrew from the business in June 2009 due to its bankruptcy, and a few months later Toyota announced plans to pull out in March 2010. The closure was opposed by city officials, including Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman, who lobbied to keep NUMMI in town. However, at 9:40 am on April 1, 2010, the factory produced its last car, the red Toyota Corolla S believed to be destined for a museum in Japan. Corolla production in North America moved to the assembly plant of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi in Blue Springs, Mississippi and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada at the 'North' assembly plant in Cambridge, Ontario.
On May 20, 2010, it was announced that Tesla Motors had purchased parts of the NUMMI plant and named it Tesla Factory, producing Tesla Model S. By 2016, the plant has 6,000 employees, with plans for more.
Maps NUMMI
Facilities
The plant covers about 88 soccer fields, and is configured to be the main building that assembles the last vehicle and five other facilities:
- Plastic bumper fabrication facilities, instrument panel, interior panel, and more;
- Stamping facilities that make all the pieces of metal sheet visible;
- The welding facility that assembles all metal parts into a single rigid unit; and
- Two paint facilities, one for passenger vehicles and one for truck cabs.
Employee
In the first 20 months of recruitment, NUMMI employs 2,200 workers per hour - 85% of the old GM-Fremont factory, of which is the old union hierarchy. Unions also played a role in choosing managers, except 16 were assigned directly by GM and about 30 Toyota managers and production coordinators from Japan, including CEO, Tatsuo Toyoda, part of the company's founding family. In 2006, the factory had 5,500 employees.
Up until facility closure in April 2010, 4,700 workers were employed. NUMMI employees are represented by The International, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Local Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) 2244.
Model generates
The first model NUMMI produced was Chevrolet Nova (1984-1988). This was followed by Geo Prizm (1989-1997), Chevrolet Prizm (1998-2002) and Hilux (1991-1995, predecessor Tacoma), as well as Toyota Voltz, the right-handed Japanese hard drive version of the Pontiac Vibe. The latter two are based on the Toyota Matrix.
Production of the Pontiac Vibe hatchback was discontinued in August 2009 when GM gradually removed the Pontiac brand in the middle of a bailout. Together with Saturn and Hummer, Pontiac joins Oldsmobile (which was discontinued after 2004) among the four GM brands that are no longer produced.
Beginning in September 1986, the NUMMI factory produced the Corolla. In January 1995, he began producing Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks.
History
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The Fremont assembly plant taken over by NUMMI was built by General Motors and operated by them from 1962 to 1982, when Fremont employees "were considered the worst labor force in the automobile industry in the United States," according to the United Auto Workers. Employees drink alcohol at work, are often absent (enough that the production line can not start), and even perform minor sabotage actions such as putting a "Coke bottle inside the door panels, so they will beat and irritate customers." GM is programmed according to Henry Ford's Labor Division, but no communication is required; management does not consider workers' views of production, and quantity is preferred over quality.
Makeover
The idea of ​​a factory resumption arose from the need that GM should build a small, high-quality and profitable car and the need for Toyota to start building cars in the United States, a requirement because of possible import restrictions by the US Congress. The goal is to produce high quality at low cost, but supported by including workers in the process. The choice of the Fremont factory and its workers is unusual because of previous problems. Despite its history and reputation, when NUMMI reopened the plant for production in 1984, 85% of the troubled GM workforce was rehired, with some being shipped to Japan to study the Toyota Production System. Transitional workers identify the emphasis on quality and teamwork by Toyota management as what motivates change in work ethics. Among the cultural changes are uniforms, parking, and cafeteria are the same for all levels of work to promote team concepts, and policies without laid off. The quality of the integrated process and the employee suggestion program for continuous improvement is another change. Consensus decision-making reaches management level, unlike the old department.
In December 1984, the first car, the yellow Nova Chevrolet slid off the assembly line. And almost immediately, the NUMMI plant produces cars of the same speed and with few defects per 100 vehicles as produced in Japan, with higher worker satisfaction.
In 1988 NUMMI operated at 58.6% capacity, and it has not reached a break-even point in 1991.
Despite its early success at Fremont, in 1998 (15 years later) GM was still unable to implement lean manufacturing across the United States, although GM's trained manager at NUMMI successfully introduced the approach to Brazil's association factories..
NUMMI is Toyota's only joint factory in the US.
Events near closing
Some of the challenges for the factory are the higher cost. The factory daily tour, offered free of charge to the public, has ended on February 27, 2009.
On June 29, 2009, General Motors announced that it would suspend its joint venture with Toyota. The announcement was made after GM CEO Fritz Henderson announced in April that General Motors would stop production of Pontiac Vibe at NUMMI. Both automakers were in discussion but could not find a suitable product to be produced at the factory. "After extensive analysis, GM and Toyota could not reach agreement on a future product plan that makes sense to all parties," North American GM president Troy Clarke said in a statement. "Toyota's hope is to continue the business and we have not yet decided on a plan at the factory," said Hideaki Homma, Tokyo-based Toyota spokesman. "Although we respect this decision by GM, the economic and business environment around Toyota is also very severe, and this GM decision makes the situation even more difficult for Toyota." Before GM decided to break its stake in the NUMMI joint venture, Toyota was considering offering a hybrid version of its Prius for GM to be built in the factory and sold as a GM model but Toyota has indicated that it is seriously considering getting out of business as well.
On August 27, 2009, Toyota announced that it would terminate its production contract with NUMMI, transferring Tacoma production to the San Antonio, Texas and Corolla pickup plant to Blue Springs, Mississippi. A total of 5,400 employees were affected, including 4,550 UAW daily workers.
In November 2009, Toyota's sales chief in the US received calls from autoworkers, saying that despite the difficult decision to close factories, "the economy has a factory in California very far from the supplier path" in the Midwest "just does not make business sense" for Toyota to continue run NUMMI factory. Meanwhile, automated workers are prepared to be covered by refreshing skills and planning for a career transition. Federal, state and local officials also participated in transitional discussions. In March 2010, 90% of 3,700 UAW workers at the plant approved a severance package of $ 281 million for a total of $ 54,000, paid by Toyota to 4,700 factory employees.
The production of the Toyota model that was originally made in NUMMI was transferred to a Toyota factory in the southern state.
Alternative to close
In January 2010, the possibility of land use is proposed: a new stadium for the home game of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball. This is close to Cisco Field's proposed site, which has never been formally approved.
State officials make sales tax exemptions on new plant equipment to preserve Nummi. A regional committee was formed in February 2010 to investigate plant closings, and the facility was assessed when operating.
On March 10, 2010, Aurica Motors announced a proposal to save the NUMMI automotive plant and related work. The company said it was intended to increase investment capital and raise the federal economic stimulus fund to help retrain workers and retool facilities for the production of electric vehicles.
End
The NUMMI plant ceased operations on April 1, 2010, ending the Toyota-GM joint venture. The last car-making factory in California saw his last car, Corolla, rolling off the assembly line. NUMMI sells equipment at auction, with robots and equipment going to the Toyota plant in Kentucky, Texas and Mississippi. NUMMI sold some equipment to Tesla for $ 15 million.
After NUMMI: land and facility use
On May 20, 2010, Tesla Motors and Toyota announced a partnership to work on the development of electric vehicles, which included partial purchases of Tesla (210 of 370 acres) from the former NUMMI site for $ 42 million, consisting mainly of factory buildings, but not equipment. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Tesla S sedan will be built at the plant. When Tesla took over the site in 2010, they changed its name to Tesla Factory. Tesla will collaborate with Toyota on the "development of electric vehicles, spare parts, and production systems and engineering support". According to Tesla Motors plans, the first plant will be used to produce the Tesla Model S sedan with the following "future vehicles" in the coming years. The plant is projected to produce 20,000 vehicles annually and employ 1,000 workers to start.
See also
CAMI Automotive (CAMI) - A similar joint venture in Canada between Suzuki and General Motors from 1986 to 2009; now operating as a wholly owned GM factory.
References
Bibliography
External links
- Autointell NUMMI page
- NUMMI Photo Tours from Edmunds.com
- JD Power Gold Plant Award for GM
- The full story of American American Life's lifetime of the creation and destruction of NUMMI - episode # 403 of This American Life
- NPR's Update This American Life 2015 about the story of NUMMI - episode # 561 from This American Life
- NUMMI production for years
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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