NUMMI

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New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. is an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. The factory was originally a General Motors plant opened in 1962 and shutdown in 1982.[1] GM and Toyota reopened the factory as a joint venture in 1984 to manufacture vehicles to be sold under both brands.[1] GM pulled out of the venture in June 2009.

When it reopened for production in 1984, it was the first automotive joint venture plant in the United States. GM saw this joint venture as an opportunity to learn about the ideas of lean manufacturing from the Japanese company, while Toyota gained its first manufacturing base in North America and a chance to implement its production system in an American labor environment. Many business textbooks mention NUMMI when they discuss joint ventures.

GM places around 12 managers each year at the plant to learn lean techniques and has improved quality enough across the rest of its operations for it to show through on J.D. Power quality rankings. While the plant has been successful in adopting Lean, other GM plants have seen benefits. GM's Oshawa, Ontario plant received the 2006 JD Power Gold Plant Quality Award, the third time in the last five years.

As of December of 2008, the NUMMI plant produces the Toyota Corolla compact car, Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, and the Pontiac Vibe hatchback, although the latter will be discontinued in August 2009 as GM phases out the Pontiac brand.[2] In the past, it produced the Chevrolet Nova (1984-1988); the Geo Prizm (1989-1997), and the Chevrolet Prizm (1998-2002), as well as the Toyota Voltz, the Japanese right-hand drive version of the Pontiac Vibe. Both are based on the Toyota Matrix, which is manufactured in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada along with the Toyota Corolla. Employment is nearly 5,500 workers. NUMMI employees are represented by The International, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) Local 2244. NUMMI sells 60% of its parts to Toyota and 40% to General Motors.

Contents

[edit] Future of NUMMI

On June 29, 2009 General Motors announced that they would discontinue the joint venture with Toyota.[3] The announcement was made following GM CEO Fritz Henderson announcing in April that General Motors would discontinue the Pontiac Vibe production at NUMMI. The two automakers were in discussions but could not find a suitable product to be produced at the factory. “After extensive analysis, GM and Toyota could not reach an agreement on a future product plan that made sense for all parties,” GM North America President Troy Clarke said in a statement. "Toyota’s hope was to continue the venture and we haven’t yet decided any plans at the factory,” said Hideaki Homma, Toyota’s Tokyo-based spokesman. “While we respect this decision by GM, the economic and business environment surrounding Toyota is also extremely severe, and so this decision by GM makes the situation even more difficult for Toyota.” Before GM decided to sever its stake in the NUMMI joint venture, Toyota was considering offering a version of its Prius hybrid to GM that would be built at the factory and sold as a GM model but Toyota has indicated that it was seriously considering exiting the venture also.[4][5] It is currently unknown about the future of NUMMI.[6]

[edit] Products

[edit] Current Products

[edit] Past products

[edit] Major Areas

The plant size spans the equivalent of about 88 football fields. The plant is configured into six major areas:

  1. Detached Plastics facility fabricating bumpers, instrument panels, interior panels, and others.
  2. Stamping facility that fabricates all visible sheet metal parts.
  3. Welding facility that assembles all metallic parts into one rigid unit.
  4. A detached Paint facility to prepare and paint passenger vehicles.
  5. A detached Painting facility to prepare and paint truck cabs.
  6. Main building that assembles entire vehicles complete with redundant quality checks to ensure customer satisfaction at the dealership.

[edit] Tours

Daily tours of the plant were offered free to the public. NUMMI has announced that tours will no longer be offered past February 27, 2009. [7] [8]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "NUMMI Milestones". http://www.nummi.com/timeline.php. Retrieved on 2009-07-13. 
  2. ^ "General Motors Statement Regarding Discontinuation of Pontiac Vibe Production at NUMMI Facility". http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet?target=http://image.emerald.gm.com/gmnews/viewpressreldetail.do?domain=30&docid=55133. Retrieved on 2009-06-20. 
  3. ^ "GM ends 25-yr-old joint venture with Toyota to build cars, trucks at Calif. plant". http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-gm-toyota,0,5435374.story. Retrieved on 2009-06-30. 
  4. ^ "UPDATE 1-Toyota may drop U.S. joint venture with GM". Reuters. 2009-07-10. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSN1053085920090710. Retrieved on 2009-07-13. 
  5. ^ Naoko Fujimura, Tetsuya Komatsu (2009-07-11). "Toyota May Dissolve California Plant Venture Abandoned by GM". Bloomberg.com. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=ay2RIu_K3uY4. Retrieved on 2009-07-13. 
  6. ^ "GM Plans to Dump Stake in Joint Factory With Toyota (Update2)". 2009-06-30. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aYp38JEZUZag. Retrieved on 2009-06-30. 
  7. ^ "Nummi Tours Appointments". https://www.appointment-plus1.com/ap/numminewunitedmotormanufacturinginc/index.php?page=10. Retrieved on 2009-06-20. 
  8. ^ "Nummi Tours". http://www.nummi.com/tours.php. Retrieved on 2009-06-20. 

[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 37°29′41.12″N 121°56′41.16″W / 37.4947556°N 121.9447667°W / 37.4947556; -121.9447667

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