If you want to experience a true engineering marvel, visit a modern automobile assembly line. We did, and we'll say without reservation that you'll be astonished at the vast amount of technology, quality, and precise planning that goes into assembling a vehicle.
We recently toured the General Motors Janesville Assembly Plant in Janesville, Wisconsin. Janesville is one of the final assembly plants that produce all trim levels of the new, hot-selling Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban, and the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL. The GM team granted us unrestricted access to the entire assembly line from start to finish so we could give you a virtual tour of how these exceptional SUVs are assembled.
It's important to remember that long before the complicated procedure of assembling (or "marrying," as they call it) the many components, GM invested a mind-boggling amount of time and money into an infrastructure that includes creative design engineers, quality suppliers, a just-in-time parts delivery system, cutting-edge robotics, and of course, a vast number of highly skilled employees.
After all that, one may think that the actual assembly process of these SUVs would be the easy part, but that is not true. The GMT900 SUVs are renowned for their tight and reliable build quality. To accomplish this, a vast amount of technology and quality control are integrated into the assembly process. As a matter of fact, we were left speechless after witnessing the attention to detail and tight quality control exhibited by the team at the Janesville plant. Add to this their focused priority on safety and the never-ending requirement of controlling costs, and it becomes apparent that these folks have their ducks (OK, trucks) in a row.
We'd love to show you how every component in the finely choreographed assembly procedure comes together because almost every step is fascinating and notable in its own right, but that would take hundreds of pages. Instead, follow along as we spotlight some of the highlights of this captivating and awe-inspiring procedure.
 1. We began our tour with...  1. We began our tour with Body Shop Area Manager Craig Colby at the end of the floorpan process. The floorpan you see here contains about 50 welded parts and is the foundation for the body structure. |  2. Conveyers carry the floorpan...  2. Conveyers carry the floorpan through a number of different "zones." In this photo you can see that the dash and the "inner quarters" have been "married" to the floorpan. |  3. Pictured are a few of the...  3. Pictured are a few of the 650 robots that work in the body shop. These robots have the ability to precisely place body components to strict dimensional positioning quickly and repeatedly. Here you can see the body beginning to take shape. The rear outer panels are positioned by the robots and then a different set of robots swing into position and tack-weld the panels in place. |
 4. This fascinating zone is...  4. This fascinating zone is where the roof is married to the body. In the foreground you can see a body assembly moments before a robot positions a sunroof-equipped roof (seen poised for installation on the right side of the photo) into position and tack-welds it in place. If you look close you can see black beads of sealer that have been robotically added to the body assembly and roof bows. This sealer is one of the reasons the roof doesn't "flutter" when a door is slammed or a window is opened at speed. |  5. Up until this point in...  5. Up until this point in the process, the body has been mostly tack-welded together. These re-spot robots add hundreds of finish welds to the body to deliver the structural integrity engineered into the design. The whole process is monitored intensely to ensure that they are getting the best quality weld. As a matter of fact, during each shift a body is randomly removed from the line and chiseled apart to ensure that the welds are perfect. Interesting fact: When completed, there are over 4,000 welds on each body. |  6. Doors, fenders, hoods,...  6. Doors, fenders, hoods, and liftgates are all manufactured in-house. Here you can see a door during the manufacturing process. The inner and outer door panels are married to exacting specifications by a machine called a "hemmer." Like everything else in the process, there's more here than meets the eye. What clamps fire first and which welds are added first were carefully analyzed by the engineers to guarantee the dimensional integrity and best seal margins of the doors. After assembly, the components go through a high-tech station where their parameters are checked with cameras to ensure they meet the exacting specifications set forth by the engineering team. |