Re: One Story Assembly Plant What If?

Posted by Dave Brownell On 2014/6/22 16:17:01

At both Corvette and BMW's South Carolina plants, any operation where a person has to place or position a part for another stamping or welding operation, there's a lucite set of doors that automatically open for the part to be placed in the jig, then the human steps back out, the doors close, and the operation takes place. No activity can take place while the doors are open and a person's eyes, fingers or other parts are at risk. The stepping forward, doors opening and closing, and stepping back to get another part may seem time wasteful, but, as they say, "Nobody gets hurt" and that saves money. At BMW, workers rotate to different job functions four times a day to cut down on repetitive motion injuries and boredom. I am not sure if that happens at Corvette.

File photos at both EGB and the St. Louis Corvette plant in the fifties seems to show a contrast in worker safety. At Packard, workers in the paint shop seem to be using suits, goggles and respirators. There are similar Corvette workers who are content holding just a paint gun. In the fiberglass finishing areas, they do have masks and respirators, though. I wonder how many of those men lived to see retirement without having a serious lung diagnosis, no matter the company they worked for?