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2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (appearance mods)
C7 of Year Winner (appearance mods) 2019
2017 C7 of Year Finalist
2015 C7 of the Year
St. Jude Donor '14-'15-'16-'17-'18-'19
Corvette Plant's New Assembly Line is Up and Running (Pics)
Plant Manager, Kai Spande, presented an update on the new assembly line and paint shop today during the National Corvette Museum's Ambassador Convention. Here are a few highlights from today's presentation:
The assembly line and paint shop are not only operational, but new 2018 production Corvettes are already being assembled this week. At the end of this week, they will have built 75 new 2018 Corvettes.
Thirteen sets of body panels that had been painted in the old paint shop were left over when production ended in July. Those thirteen sets were used this week on 13 of the 75 new 2018 Corvettes.
Three weeks ago, Kai Spande challenged his team to meet a new goal of having the paint shop not only ready to paint the first four colors once full production begins next week, but to be fully operational with ALL 2018 Corvette colors. As of November 1, everything is on track for this goal to be met. The old paint shop will remain available for a time, but the intent is to paint all new 2018 Corvettes and beyond in the new shop from this point on.
Normal assembly production will result in 11.6 cars assembled per hour. The maximum assembly capacity is now limited by the paint shop to 14 per hour (this is the maximum possible and not a rate of assembly that they are going to attempt any time in the near future).
Finally, here are some photos of various assembly line processes comparing the old line with the new line in "Before" and "After" photos.
Notice that the body panels have not yet been installed on the car at this point in the assembly line process. Body panels are now installed at the end of assembly.
The various parts for this section of the assembly line are held in bins that follow along with the skillet for each car.
On the skillet, the car rests fully on its own suspension via the devices seen in this photo that are bolted to the car with lug nuts.
Last edited by jagamajajaran; 11-01-2017 at 10:37 PM.
Thank you. When will the factory stop pulling cars for QC? I have a TPW of Dec 4. Could mine be held up for QC? Any chance I could get it by Christmas? I appreciate any insights you might be willing to share.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (appearance mods)
C7 of Year Winner (appearance mods) 2019
2017 C7 of Year Finalist
2015 C7 of the Year
St. Jude Donor '14-'15-'16-'17-'18-'19
Originally Posted by SouthOCBoy
Thank you. When will the factory stop pulling cars for QC? I have a TPW of Dec 4. Could mine be held up for QC? Any chance I could get it by Christmas? I appreciate any insights you might be willing to share.
Your car will probably be produced around the time that the longer QC hold ends. That said, your car will still fall under the two week quality hold before being shipped to your dealership. Getting it by Christmas will most likely be determined by what part of the week your car is produced and then how long it takes for your car to be transported. Best wishes!
Originally Posted by Jmcdude
Agent Jeremy with the spy shots taken from the camera hidden in the daisy on his lapel
Wow, that is just under a 25% reduction! I recall hearing they wanted to reduce the number of cars built per hour in order to increase quality but that level of reduction is surprising.
Then again given the normal reduction in sale heading into the 5th model year it's a wash.
It's great news that all colors will be painted in the new shop right away, and I think that's something GM absolutely had to do with the surprise announcement of the early 2019 production that caught everyone off guard, especially those of us with 2018 orders waiting in the system. I know a lot of those people are bummed about this, but they'd be even more angry if they found out their 2018 was going to be painted in the old shop. At least this eases their pain somewhat, as now their 2018 really won't be much different than the 2019.
It looks like my car is still on target for the first week of December so I too am hoping to get it before Christmas. I'm going to be in Florida from Dec 27th to Jan 5th, so it would be nice to get it before the trip, but even if I'm picking it up as soon as I arrive back home it'll make the "return to the cold north" a lot more bearable than usual
One question, if full production starts next week, is there anyone on here with a TPW for next week? If not, perhaps there is still a chance everyone's TPWs could shift a week earlier (even though a bunch just got shifted the other way)
Wow, that is just under a 25% reduction! I recall hearing they wanted to reduce the number of cars built per hour in order to increase quality but that level of reduction is surprising.
Then again given the normal reduction in sale heading into the 5th model year it's a wash.
Remember that the only limitations on total number of cars produced are orders and cost-effectiveness to increase hours of operation per week (as well as union rules). A net reduction of minus twenty-five could go to plus X per day/week, if desired and feasible.
Thanks for the fotos; makes a lot of sense out of the words. Paint pic of first car off the line yesterday was a winner, too!!
11-01-2017, 10:27 PM
Corvette Plant's New Assembly Line is Up and Running (Pics)
