GM’s Flint engine plant undergoing renovations in anticipation of new Volt

The GM Flint Engine Operations plant is undergoing a $215 million renovation to build 3- and 4-cylinder Ecotec variants with displacements ranging from 1.0 to 1.5 liters and the 2016Volt’s (1.5) is one of these new efficient engines..

Plans at this plant where the present Volt genset is now being built are underway with walls going up, assembly machines due to come in later, and a lot of excitement at the union operation, according to MLive.

 

“I think just our team alone, everyone is really excited because we’re really involved,” said UAW Local 599 worker Kim Hubbard on Monday Jan. 12, the say the Volt was unveiled.

The union employees are working hand-in-glove with GM engineers to make this an efficient assembly – of the assembly plant.

Hubbard and others are able to give real-time input on issues as they may occur in the assembly plant’s construction.

 

“A lot of times in the past you have issues that pop up in the assembly plant and it’s difficult to make changes there,” said GM Spokesman Tom Wickham to MLive. “We’re trying to pull all that further upstream.”

Hubbard mentioned workers first spent time in a factory in Japan and at Toluca Mexico where the Volt’s engine will first be assembled before Flint comes on line third or fourth quarter this year.

According to the operations launch manager for GM, Jim Stack, the transition for this factory has been unique.

 

Without stopping production, work is continuing on current projects including the present generation Volt.

“We’ve had to rearrange the plant. It’s been like a board game, you’ve got to find open spaces,” Stack said to MLIve. “That’s the one big challenge for us.”

This also helped the core team, he said, about new equipment coming in.

 

“For this plant, it’s a brand new assembly system,” Stack said.

Source: GM-Volt.com