FLINT, MI - GM officials say a new $900-million body shop at the Flint Assembly Plant is on target to open in 2018 and will allow workers there to build more trucks.
The 900,000-square-foot shop will allow GM to deliver materials between the Flint Assembly and Metal Center, cutting down on the time it takes to ship parts and reduce handling time.
Parts will flow from the stamping plant in the south through a tunnel, workers will build the parts onto the truck bodies and the vehicles will head out to the nearby paint shop via an overhead tunnel.
"This allows us to have a higher capacity than what we have today," said Jeff Lamarche, complex director of Flint Manufacturing Operations and plant manager for Flint Assembly and Flint Metal Center. "It allows us to update our technology and our facilities.
On Wednesday, May 11, GM executives, union leaders and others gathered at a news conference where workers poured concrete in a footing for the new assembly plant.
The body shop is the final project that's part of GM's $5.4 billion the company announced for its North American manufacturing facilities in 2015.
GM has invested $2.8 billion into the Flint complex since 2009, the company said.
"This is a Powerball-type investment," said Gerald Kariem, director of United Auto Workers Region 1D. "The workers of (Local) 598 continue to get such high marks. I continue to be impressed by this work site."
The body shop current has 400 plus workers who build 720 trucks per day.
After the new body shop is done by the end of 2018, GM will idle the current body shop.
"Seeing the shortcomings and the opportunities for increased efficiency is exciting for me," said Phil Renner, area manager in charge of the body shop at General Motors' Flint Assembly Plant. "Now we have a chance to get it right. I think we a new layout that's been well thought out, we can more efficiently use our manpower."
Renner would not say how many more trucks Flint will be able to produce with the new body shop.
Dominic Adams is a reporter for The Flint Journal. Contact him at [email protected] or 810-241-8803. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.