ARLINGTON -- On Thursday, I made my debut on the assembly line of the General Motors plant in Arlington -- flawlessly, I thought.
Not quite."You left off a steering wheel and a rear bumper," said my team leader, Norma Gonzalez."Is that a bad thing?" I asked.Turns out that it is, especially for a company like GM, the automaking behemoth that has emerged from a 2009 bankruptcy to achieve significant corporate momentum. Much of that new steam comes from a renewed commitment to quality, GM workers told me Thursday.In that vein, steering wheels and rear bumpers are more or less essential.My stint at the massive plant at Division Street and Texas 360 coincided with recent happy news in Arlington, home to GM's only facility that makes full-size SUVs like the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade.About 1,000 new workers have been hired in recent months, bringing the total to about 3,500, and the plant is in the midst of a $530 million expansion.A stamping plant is being added and a third shift will begin work next year. The plant turns out more than 500 vehicles a day.In a rare glimpse into GM's inner workings, media types were invited to join new workers for assembly line training, albeit on a small scale. The SUVs in question were not real vehicles but wooden facsimiles. In a pre-line pep talk, GM's Kathy Hitz stressed safety, efficiency and laserlike attention to detail.She didn't mention the bankruptcy or the $50 billion government bailout that saved the automaker, but no one associated with the company needs to be reminded. Though the company is now profitable, the U.S. government still owns about 26 percent of its stock."We're not going to be world-class and stay world-class unless we're continuously improving," Hitz said. "We've got a lot of competition out there that wants to take our position."My assembly team on Thursday consisted of Daniel Novick, a local television guy about as inept on the line as I was; Air Force Maj. Chris Clark, a visitor from Naval Air Station Fort Worth; and James Cooperwood, 55, one of the new hires. Cooperwood was living in Oklahoma, working in the hotel industry, when he landed one of the coveted GM jobs."Man, the whole family is excited," he said. "The history I've learned about GM is impressive. To be part of this and moving up in life is what I'm looking forward to."Gonzalez, our 24-year-old leader, spoke about GM with almost religious fervor. She started working at the Arlington plant six years ago as a high school intern and soon earned a full-time job on the assembly line, where she worked her way through college, sleeping only a few hours a day.She earns her degree in industrial engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington on Sunday. With GM, she is clearly going places."It was a little bit scary," she said of GM's recent struggles. "This is all I've done. This is home. I come from the line. I've worked on the line. We want to get better every day. We want to get more efficient."In that regard, Thursday's team was no doubt a horrible disappointment. We were trained to secure front and rear bumpers, steering wheels, gas caps and insignias. I kept dropping screws.Slapping on the various pieces and tightening them down with an electric drill seemed easy enough at first. But then the conveyor belt started inching forward.We had the length of a vehicle to complete our tasks. Many times, we didn't."You're in my personal space," Novick, the TV guy, complained.Gonzalez often had to step in for her overwhelmed team.In the first 20 minutes, we crashed two SUVs. Our goal was to finish 18 cars. We managed 12. Gonzalez counted a whopping 16 defects, ranging from loose screws to, yes, missing steering wheels.Before the company stock could plummet, Gonzalez convened a team meeting. We brainstormed ways of doing things more efficiently. Or I should say, Maj. Clark and Gonzalez brainstormed. The rest of us nodded.In our second 20-minute run, our team more or less revolutionized the auto industry. We met our goal of assembling 18 cars. We cut our defects to six. There was one small problem. I dropped a bumper. In real life, that bumper would have gone straight to expensive scrap."I will not let you assemble a Cadillac, a Cadillac that I will one day purchase, if you have not been trained properly," Gonzalez said.Is that why she seemed relieved when I took off my safety goggles and gloves and headed back out the front gate?Tim Madigan, 817-390-7544Twitter: @tsmadiganHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
