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2 minute video: Assembling the 2011 Chevrolet Volt

Discussion in 'Chevrolet Volt' started by cwerdna, Dec 2, 2010.

  1. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    #1 cwerdna, Dec 2, 2010
  2. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    At least it should prove to the doubters that it IS actually getting made.

    Is it in the dealers yet? It's now December and my understanding was it should now be out for sale over your side of the pond.
     
    #2 GrumpyCabbie, Dec 2, 2010
  3. cproaudio

    cproaudio Speedlock Overrider

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    I've seen those robots at the LA auto show at the Ford booth. They have extremely precise movements. The arm has no free play what so ever. The arm is extremely powerful. At the show, the arm picked up a square cabinet door that weighs just a few pounds max. The fitting of the door is exact fit. There's no noticeable gap around the door. The robot arm pulled the door out of the cabinet, moved it around, spun it around, then put it back in. It looked like a robot putting a square block in a square hole quickly and perfectly. After that, it picked up an engine block and did the same thing. It spun both at the same rate with the same precision. I was amazed because the only thing similar to those robot arms that I've ever seen is a backhoe. They're slow and rock back and forth when the arm stops. The robots at the auto show is completely solid with its movement.
    Now, back to the video. I noticed that when the auto workers working on the vehicle, the assembly line is still moving. This has me questioning the quality of craftsmanship. I know of many people have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time let along walking and assembling cars at the same time. All the docs I've seen about automotive manufacturing have the assembly line stopped so the auto workers can concentrate on their job. In this video, they had the car moving and the guy is walking and attaching the door at the same time.
     
    #3 cproaudio, Dec 2, 2010
  4. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    I wouldn't be so sure of that, at least with non-exotic cars produced in mass/lean production quantities. I've toured 5 auto plants and I don't recall too many areas in final assembly where the cars are stopped on the line, unless someone pulled the cord to stop the line or the workers all went to lunch (as what happened in the midst of a Nissan tour).

    Here's a video I quickly dug up at
    showing cars moving on the line. http://www.toyota.com/about/our_business/engineering_and_manufacturing/tmmk/ says TMMK was established in 86.

    I also distinctly remember at some plants (might've been Toyota or all the Japanese plants I've visited) where some workers had containers of parts (usually fasteners) mounted on a pole that moved at the same speed as the line but they could push it back/forward, as needed. It moved so that they wouldn't have run back/forth for parts.
     
    #4 cwerdna, Dec 2, 2010
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