What Is New At BGA

[John]

We have a video presentation of many of the changes within the Plant. These changes stem from the 13 week shut down last fall. This is an interesting video presentation by Nora Roper, Ass’t Plant Manager. I learned quite a bit, and will learn more watching it again. Within her video are several videos of actual operations within the Plant that, show what heretofore we have never seen — because we have been denied access to Plant. As to why it has been shut down to us outsider for a while, we won’t hazard a guess LOL. As to when it is re-opened, that too is unknown at this time, but for sure it will not be before the ME’s reveal.

Thank you jagamajajaran for filming and posting this video on YouTube for our learning!

Some general areas describing the video: The first 1/3 is about engines being built in the Plant; then not just diagrams as to what is new processes within the Plant, but again more videos of some assembly parts of it actually happening, then touring the 1,000,000,000 square foot paint shop (another video), and then general information.

Here is the overall video.

Special bonus to the first person who watches it and finds what is radically different from not just what we already know, but something that once you see or realize it, you will also be shocked at that difference (that is if you have been through the Plant multiple times before).

And thus to the first person who posts what it is, you will win the “Eagle Eye” Award — and it will be added to your forum title for the rest of this month. Note, while many of you will correctly identify what is new (for there are many things different from what we saw the last time we were allowed inside the Plant), the Eagle Eye award goes to the person who identifies the one thing that struck me as the outstanding different (and again was not mentioned to us in previous “BGA Changes” videos and presentations by either Kai or Nora.

Good luck, and post below. Multiple guesses are allowed, but only the first one within a post will be counted — so only post one BGA change per each of your posts will be considered.

[meyerweb]

As to when it is re-opened, that too is unknown at this time, but for sure it will not be before the ME’s reveal..

I was just thinking about this the other day. Wouldn't the end of August, during the 2019 Corvette Caravan, be a great time to show the new ME to some 20,000 Corvette owners in Bowling Green?

https://www.corvettecaravan.com/

[John]

Yes, YES! It sure would. I will be there, at the end of our 5th Caravan.

[Shadow]

Thanks jagamajajaran for filming the BGA changes video. I had planned to watch it yesterday, but a picture or two, or was it 100+ that changed my day totally. I will get to that video tonight.

[Zora's Ghost]

Skillets! They have lift capacity for ergonomics.

[John]

Picture of a BGA “skillet”. They were introduced during last fall’s 13 week shutdown and have been in operation since.

[Ssscooter66]

I'm glad for everyone in the building that get these to use daily, weekly & hopefully many years , but I'm pretty sure the reason it was installed is to make the assembly line faster or cost less to run (less people). Thats the only reason I know after many years where I work that something like this is ever installed . So it's good & bad. Anyway, it's nice & it's NEW for BGA ..

[John]

Actually the benefits to employees and to us customers are postive.

1) It allows every employee to have the vehicle at the height that is best for them to do their tasks, e..g, less lifting, less bending, less crouching, etc.; less employee injuries over time is a secondary consequence and while some view ergonomic advances as reducing management’s injury/medical costs, I view them as resulting in fewer bad backs, fewer employees who experience pain, and fewer employees who had to daily live with such issues as chronic back pain. And the less pain an employee is experiencing doing their job, the better the car’s quality will, on average, become.

2) The line speed was adjusted from 17.2 Corvettes per hour to 11.5 vehicles assembled per hour. This significantly reduced the amount of vehicles capable of being produced per year, with maximum overtime, by 7,000 Corvettes, annually..

3) The lower speed allows employees to do a better job. Having worked on an automobile assembly line, the lower the speed of cars traveling by your work station;and, the more time you have to do those occasional jobs which don’t “go into place” as quickly they typically do. Employees, while true they have some more tasks, now have 5 minutes to do what they only had three minutes to do. I would rather had five minutes to do five jobs than 3 minutes to do three jobs, for some vehicles create unique assembly issues, e.g. convertibles.

4) All the above resulted in better quality cars — which is good for the General, and really good for us customers.

5) As part of the economic development grants which BGA has successfully applied for the last four years, GM commitment to either not reducing the total workforce within BGA, or most times, increasing the amount of the assembly line jobs.

[Busa Dave]

Actually the benefits to employees and to us customers are postive.

1) It allows every employee to have the vehicle at the height that is best for them to do their tasks, e..g, less lifting, lses bending, less crouching, etc.; less employee injuries over time is a secondary consequence and while some view ergonomic advances as reducing management’s injury/medical costs, I view them as resulting in fewer bad backs, fewer employees who experience pain, and fewer employees who had to daily live with such issues as chronic back pain. And the less pain an employee is experiencing doing their job, the better the car’s quality will, on average, become.

2) The line speed was adjusted from 17.2 Corvettes per hour to 11.5 vehicles assembled per hour. This significantly reduced the amount of vehicles capable of being produced per year, with maximum overtime, by 7,000 Corvettes, annually..

3) The lower speed allows employees to do a better job. Having worked on an automobile assembly line, the lower the speed of cars traveling by your work station;and, the more time you have to do those occasional jobs which don’t “go into place” as quickly they typically do. Employees, while true they have some more tasks, now have 5 minutes to do what they only had three minutes to do. I would rather had five minutes to do five jobs than 3 minutes to do three jobs, for some vehicles create unique assembly issues, e.g. convertibles.

4) All the above resulted in better quality cars — which is good for the General, and really good for us customers.

5) As part of the economic development grants which BGA has successfully applied for the last four years, GM commitment to either not reducing the total workforce within BGA, or most times, increasing the amount of the assembly line jobs.

John--what you have posted is so true. Out of station installations are not cost effective at all. As you pointed out in 1., 2. and 3. this will help eliminate the aforementioned which there is a considerable amount of pressure on the touch labor force not to do and I have seen it on 40 to over 100 million dollar aircraft more than once . This as you have pointed out perfectly that it means a better product for us..

[duckvett]

I have a question for those of you who are familiar with practices and results of BGA:
We have a new 2019 Grand Sport on order - status 3000 as of 9/18/18 - and I am reading several posts in all of the Corvette related forums about fit & finish problems and transportation damage. Is this more of "he who hollers the loudest" gets the most clicks? I have found that the complaints we read on forums is far outweighed by all the positive experiences owners do not report. So, finally, the question - how prevalent are fit & finish problems occurring with `19's?

[Ssscooter66]

Just a suggestion, you might want to start a New Topic to get more answers on this ...

[JB]

I have a question for those of you who are familiar with practices and results of BGA:
We have a new 2019 Grand Sport on order - status 3000 as of 9/18/18 - and I am reading several posts in all of the Corvette related forums about fit & finish problems and transportation damage. Is this more of "he who hollers the loudest" gets the most clicks? I have found that the complaints we read on forums is far outweighed by all the positive experiences owners do not report. So, finally, the question - how prevalent are fit & finish problems occurring with `19's?

I wouldnt worry..,.you nailed it when you said he who hollers the loudest gets the most clicks..

fit and finish is excellent these days with corvettes...

my question would be did the cadillac division cough up the funds for the recent plant expansion?

there was a plan for a cadillac derivative of the rear mid engine corvette and even if thats put on hold...did the cadillac division participate in funding the bowling green expansion and with the cancellation of the cadillac derivative of the c8 or so we have been told...is that cadillac funding why the dohc cam twin turbo engines are being hand assembled there?

no cadillac car but its cts v engines will be built there?

[meyerweb]

The paint on my '15 is typical of the old paint shop, with quite a bit of orange peel, but other than that I had no fit and finish issues. I think that's more typical than not.