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BY DAVID MALONEY, CHIEF EDITOR specialreport WAREHOUSE SUPPORT OF MANUFACTURING Cruze control Producing a car a minute requires coordination, split-second timing, and a lot of behind-the-scenes support. Here’s how GM keeps the Chevrolet Cruze assembly lines humming. IN AN AUTO RACE, TECHNICIANS ON A PIT CREW But beyond simply sorting and organizing parts, the real must carry out their tasks in a precisely choreographed value that Comprehensive brings is its value-added services. sequence to get the driver back out on the track as For Lordstown, this includes producing subassemblies quickly as possible. To do that, they have to have the of some of the major components for the Cruze. These right materials ready in the right order and at the subassemblies will later be inserted directly into the car, right time. The same could be said of manufacturing saving valuable time at the Lordstown assembly plant. automobiles. Today’s complex assembly operations require the same kind of coordination and timing to A PLAN FOR EVERY PART keep manufacturing running at a high volume. General Motors (GM), Chevrolet’s parent company, Take the assembly of the popular Chevrolet Cruze, for owns the parts processed at the Austintown facility and example. Thousands of parts go into its production— orders all the parts from suppliers. The parts basically parts that have to come together quickly and in a fall into three categories. The first consists of bulk parts, precise sequence in order for the assembly plant in which are basic items that go into every Cruze built. The Lordstown, Ohio, to meet its goal of producing one car second category consists of parts that differ depending per minute. Making sure the plant has all of the parts on the individual car, such as a door panel of a specific it needs on time and in the right sequence is the job of color. The last category consists of parts that require Comprehensive Logistics, a third-party service provider that something be done to them in Austintown, either that specializes in automotive logistics. through the site’s kitting or subassembly operations. Comprehensive operates a 640,000-square-foot GM provides Comprehensive with electronic data distribution facility in Austintown, Ohio, which is files on each type of part it requires for the Cruze. located less than 10 miles from Lordstown. The facility’s Comprehensive then creates an individualized plan for sole responsibility is to feed parts to exact positions on handling that part based on its dimensions, weight, the Lordstown assembly lines. It receives, consolidates, origins, where on the Lordstown line it will be needed, and deconsolidates parts from suppliers and prepares and the minimum/maximum number needed to them for just-in-time delivery to the plant. Currently, maintain desired levels of inventory. This information 85 percent of the parts used in the Cruze flow through is uploaded to Austintown’s proprietary warehouse the Comprehensive facility—a total of 2,236 SKUs management system (WMS), known as Streme. (stock-keeping units). Processes in the Austintown building are then designed PHOTO COURTESY OF GENERAL MOTORS Providing these types of consolidation and distribution around those particular incoming parts. services is a specialty of Comprehensive, which “We engineer the layout based on the parts—where currently supports about 25 different auto production they will be stored, when they need to be picked, what plants nationwide. The company has been serving the value-added work needs to be done on them, which dock Lordstown plant for 11 years. Before it began providing they will enter the building from, and which dock they production support for the Cruze, the facility handled will ship from,” explains Trey Lyda, director of corporate parts for the Chevy Cobalt and Cavalier models that services, who is responsible for the engineering design were previously built at Lordstown. and layout at the Austintown facility. Once a plan is in place, the facility is ready to receive As for the tracking of materials throughout the day, the parts. GM provides advance ship notices for parts the Streme system provides GM with full visibility into due to arrive at Austintown’s 54 receiving docks. Most the status of Austintown’s parts processing operations parts come in reusable plastic containers or metal racks as well as products in transit. GM, in turn, shares designed specifically for the individual parts they hold. information on inventory on hand at Lordstown so Receiving personnel scan the suppliers’ labels on that Comprehensive can prepare for what parts will be incoming containers and conduct a visual inspection. needed next. Lordstown typically keeps only about four The containers are then assigned a “license plate” in hours’ worth of materials on site. receiving, which is scanned into the Streme system. “Streme provides us with an animated representation The WMS determines whether the items will be cross- of everything we have in inventory and in process in real docked or sent to storage areas, where they are stacked time,” says Steve Olender, vice president of information on the floor or placed into pallet racks for short-term technology at Comprehensive. storage. The storage areas are scattered throughout Many of the parts require specific sequencing to WAREHOUSE SUPPORT OF MANUFACTURING the building—either close to the docks from which the match the build order of individual cars. In the case products will depart or near areas where the items will of these parts, workers receive picking directions via undergo further processing. radio-frequency (RF) units. If, say, a door panel pad Some parts, especially those from international suppliers, is needed, the RF device will first tell a worker which arrive in cartons. These are either repacked into plastic part to pull from a rack of panels. At that point, the report containers for delivery to Lordstown or sent to kitting system prints a part label, which the worker scans and areas, where they are combined with other parts to form applies to the part. The RF device then tells him or her kits (for example, a kit that includes the pieces needed for which slot in the 12-slot shipping rack to place the part an emergency tire jack set). The kits into so that the items will be in the are then placed into containers for proper sequence for assembly. The special lineside delivery. worker next scans the slot in the Austintown also provides rack to confirm that the right part management services for the was placed there. Conducting four containers and the metal racks. The scans for a single pick might sound company gathers empty containers like overkill, but Comprehensive at Lordstown and returns them to believes it’s necessary to ensure the vendors. Right now, there are ultra-high levels of accuracy. 114 different types of containers within the container management CHANGE IS A WAY OF LIFE program, and the Austintown Most people would be surprised at facility handles an average of 14,000 how much continuous improvement empty containers daily. goes on in automotive manufacturing. Engineers are constantly tinkering START YOUR ENGINES with the cars, making incremental Production takes place 24 hours improvements. As a result, there are a day, five days a week. As about 150 part changes every week parts are consumed in Lordstown throughout the that Austintown has to address for Cruze production. day, GM electronically delivers, or “broadcasts,” “The car gets better every single day. It is all part of lists of replenishment parts it needs for assembly. continuous improvement, as we all want to make a better Comprehensive has about 80 minutes to gather and product,” notes James Kriner, the Austintown plant manager. deliver bulk parts to lineside positions in the plant. Sometimes, though, car companies will decide it’s Most of these parts are already packed in containers or time to make wholesale changes to a particular model, loaded onto pallets, so it’s a matter of gathering them which happened this year on the Cruze. On Feb. 8, GM and placing them onto trucks that shuttle them to the began producing a completely re-engineered second- Lordstown facility. generation Cruze. The Austintown facility has 42 outbound docks, where In preparation for the changeover, the Lordstown containers are loaded onto the trucks in reverse sequence operation shut down for five weeks for retooling. Among to the order in which they will be used on the other decisions, Comprehensive had to determine how production line. Falcon Transport Co., a sister company to handle each of the new parts for the Cruze, as only to Comprehensive, provides the transport services using 161 of the 2,236 parts remained unchanged from the standard 53-foot trailers. first-generation car to the second. Electronic and single printed copies for distrubtion with permission to Comprehensive Logistics Co.,Inc. from DC Velocity March © 2016 Agile Business Media, LLC. (lifetime web posting) special As part of the overhaul, GM made wholesale changes which assembles the condenser, fan, and radiator to its sourcing strategy. Some 70 percent of the parts in module (this was one of the subassembly lines that was the 2015 model Cruze came from international points, relocated). Another subassembly line builds the front report with only 30 percent sourced from North American vertical, which includes the front suspension system suppliers. For 2016, that is reversed—70 percent North and front disc brakes. A rear vertical line assembles the American and 30 percent international. rear suspension, rear axle, and rear brakes, while a front Sourcing parts closer to home allowed GM to cut horizontal line produces the engine cradle. leadtimes while creating flexibility within its supply Perhaps the most complex of the subassemblies WAREHOUSE SUPPORT OF MANUFACTURING chain.

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