Oshawa Car Assembly

The fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro is a product of the Oshawa Car Assembly.

Oshawa Car Assembly is a major manufacturing facility in the city of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada building various automobiles for General Motors Canada. The factory is one of the largest auto plants in the world and has won a number of awards. The plant is part of the larger GM Autoplex, which includes the now closed Oshawa Truck Assembly.

The facility has over 10 million square feet (930,000 m²) of factory floor. It was converted to a state of the art Flexible Manufacturing facility in 2008, which involved the consolidation of two car plants. There are approximately 5,400 hourly employees and 400 salaried employees.

The hourly-rated workers are represented by the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW), Local 222. The plant is currently managed by Dan Hermer; plant staff include Gerry Meek (assistant plant manager), Greg Pratt (Body Shop Plant Manager), Paul McLaughlin (Paint Shop Plant Manager), Darcy Ste. Marie (Trim Plant Manager) and Jeff Bantam (Chassis Plant Manager). The contiguous Stamping Plant is managed by Melanie Chandler. The President of CAW Local 222 is Chris Buckley, the GM Shop Committee Chairperson is Greg Moffatt.

Current products include the Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet Camaro and Chevrolet Equinox. The Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Pontiac Grand Prix were discontinued in June and November 2007 respectively. The Buick LaCrosse was discontinued from Oshawa #2 in 2008 and moved to Fairfax Assembly for 2009. In the fourth quarter of that year, it began producing the new Chevrolet Camaro. It has been announced that the Oshawa plant may build the 2012 Cadillac XTS. The Buick Regal will launch on the flex line in 2011, along with the Camaro Convertible.

In August 2010, the plant began producing the Chevrolet Equinox in partnership with another GM facility in Ingersoll Ontario, known as CAMI Automotive. The metal bodies are made at CAMI, trucked two hours east to Oshawa, where they are inserted on the conveyor just before the paint shop. The bodies are painted and then go through the general assembly process at the Oshawa plant. The entire process was developed as quick way to respond to high demand for the Equinox product. The CAMI facility does make Equinox and GMC Terrain from start to finish at their own plant, but they did not have the capacity to put more bodies through paint and general assembly.

The plant won the J.D. Power Gold Award for initial quality in 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002; as well a numerous other individual awards for the specific models it produces. In 2007, the plant won silver for initial quality, and a Gold Best in Segment award for the Pontiac Grand Prix, and Bronze Best in Segment for the Monte Carlo. In all, the plant has won 19 J.D. Power awards for quality since 1999. In recognition of that achievement, J.D. Power awarded the Founder's Award to the Car Plant in the summer of 2008; it is an award that has been presented only six times in the lengthy history of J.D. Power & Associates. Harbour Consulting rated Oshawa #1 (building the Impala and Monte Carlo) as the second most efficient in North America, the top-rated in the study was Oshawa #2 (building the LaCrosse and Grand Prix).^[1][2]

History

The facility has produced vehicles since the 1950s.1953 land cleared for car production went into 1965 for final truck moving into the plant from north Oshawa Oshawa has Built Cars as McLaughlin Car company of Canada limited 1907 and Chevrolet Motor Company of Canada 1915 and Merged both in 1918 to become General Motors of Canada Limited in 1918 as McLaughlin became Director and Vice-President General Motors Corporation. and Merged with General Motors Corporation.( under Durant as President)

In the mid-1980s, GM began a large transformation of the facility, naming the site "Autoplex." The changeover came in three steps, the first being conversion of the truck plant to GMT400 production in 1986. The next step was retooling Line 2 for the new W-body Regal, which began production in mid-1987. The final instalment was a long changeover of Line 1 for the Chevrolet Lumina^[3], which went into production on January 8, 1989^[4] as a 1990 model.

In January 1988, Oshawa became the first North American GM plant to minimize the issue of large scale layoffs by cutting the second shift and alternating day- and night-shift workers at two-week intervals. This system was later adopted at other plants around the continent.^[3]

Current models

• 2010–present Chevrolet Camaro (New Flexible Assembly Line)
• 1999–present Chevrolet Impala
• 2011– Buick Regal
• 2010- Present Chevrolet Equinox

Former models

The following dates refers to the years that the particular model was produced at Oshawa facilities.

• 1908-2011 McLaughlin Car Company of Canada Limited/with Buick motor
• 1915-2011 Chevrolet
• 1918 General Motors of Canada Limited was the name after the merge in Canada and later with the Corporation
• 1919-2010 Chevrolet Trucks/1923 GMC/1940-1958 Pontiac Trucks
• 1920-1969 Oldsmobile
• 1920-1921 Sampson Truck
• 1923-1936 Cadillac/LaSalle 1927-1935
• 1926-2007 Pontiac
• 1929-1930 Marquette
• 1961-1969 Acadian
• 2005–2008 Buick LaCrosse/Allure
• 1995–2007 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
• 2004–2007 Pontiac Grand Prix
• 1988–2004 Buick Regal
• 1982–2005 Buick Century
• 1982–1990 Chevrolet Celebrity
• 1990–2001 Chevrolet Lumina
• 1982–1988 Pontiac 6000
• Chevrolet Caprice Classic
• 1978–1981 Chevrolet Malibu
• 1976–1981 Chevrolet Bel Air
• 1973–1975 Chevrolet Biscayne
• Chevrolet Kingswood Estate (Chevrolet Caprice)
• Chevrolet Kingswood (Chevrolet Impala)
• Chevrolet Townsman (Chevrolet Bel Air)
• 1969–1972 Chevrolet Brookwood (Chevrolet Biscayne) station wagons
• Pontiac Strato Chief
• Pontiac Laurentian
• 1958–1986 Pontiac Parisienne
• Pontiac Grande Parisienne
• Pontiac Catalina
• Pontiac Bonneville
• Pontiac LeMans
• Chevrolet Monte Carlo

See also

• Oshawa Truck Assembly - located on the same site next to Oshawa Car Assembly.
• General Motors Canada
• Final Offer - 1984 documentary film that shows life on the floor of the Oshawa Plant.

References

1. ^ "Efficient auto factories aren't spared the ax". Detroit News. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060602/AUTO01/606020394/1148. Retrieved June 2, 2006. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "The Harbour Report North America 2007" (pdf). Harbour Consulting. May 31, 2007. http://www.oliverwyman.com/content_images/2007PressRelease_EN.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-11. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Ward's Automotive Yearbook 1988. Ward's Communications, Inc. 1988. 
4. ^ Ward's Automotive Yearbook 1989. Ward's Communications, Inc. 1989. 

Coordinates: 43°52′3.28″N -78°51′58.99″E / 43.8675778°N 77.1336139°W / 43.8675778; -77.1336139