History Chanel: Aseembly Lines
 

Did anyone else catch this show?
Its part of their Modern Marvels series. Most of the show is a history of Ford's River Rogue Complex. I found that part very interesting as I have been a fan of that complex for many years. Its where the Model A and subsequent Fords were built. What set it apart was not merely its size, but the concept of processing the raw materials and building cars all in one place. They never made every part that went into every car, but they made enough of every part that parts' suppliers could not hold up production. Ford made their own steel, castings, forgings, glass, etc. Ford also used all methods of transportation from ships to trucks and trains.
In the 60's the Japanese improved on the idea.
The last segment of the show centered on the world's most modern, best manufacturing auto assemble plant. Anyone want to guess where it is and what cars they make?.........
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Its in the USA.
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Alabama....
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They make...
HYUANDAI.
They said the robots that position all the body panels work to a tolerance of +/- .01mm!!! Wow!
In the interest of completeness, Hyundai was a sponsor of the show.

i visited the rouge plant around 1961. i won a trip up there for selling new subscriptions to the indianapolis news.

one of many trips i took on them.

tom w

This plant may be one of the best, but it would be hard to prove it is THE best... many other manufacturers have close-tolerance robots and other automation.

Hyundai is forgiven for bragging, and I thank them and other sponsors for providing educations programming that is far more interesting to me than what the Network packages for the masses...