how long to make one Volt

[rhammar]

I am curious as to how long it takes to make one Volt at the Michigan plant.

[PatsVolt]

I am curious as to how long it takes to make one Volt at the Michigan plant.

I was looking at a few of the tracking data provided by the members that have volts in production and the average is about two weeks. Of course that is not production line time, but time from beginning where it sets up everything that is needed to put all the parts and processes in motion. Actual assembly of the parts is probably less then a day. I bet there is someone that could tell us the precise time.

P

[ChrisC]

From memory, they spend a few days in the paint job and a couple days on the line. See the FAQ for more timing information. Generally they go from 3400 to 3800 in about two weeks. Except for poor ChasSidwa of course, who we are all rooting for :/

[Stilgar99]

Also....from the VIN numbers....it appears that they are making ~ 200+ a week.

Stilgar

[ChasSidwa]

From memory, they spend a few days in the paint job and a couple days on the line. See the FAQ for more timing information. Generally they go from 3400 to 3800 in about two weeks. Except for poor ChasSidwa of course, who we are all rooting for :/

11/16/2010 - (2000) Order Accepted by GM Dealer used allocation to place order into production
11/17/2010 - (2500) Order Preferenced Order pulled to the production system
11/17/2010 - (3000) Order accepted by production control. Parts being ordered and production process is underway.
11/30/2010 - (3300) Order Scheduled for Production Order is scheduled into the plant build cycle
11/30/2010 - (3100) Order available to sequence.
11/30/2010 - (3400) Order Broadcast (Internal Plant Paperwork Order Produced) Order is sent to various build & supplier areas to bring order together


50 days and counting, why do I have to be the outlier?

[WVhybrid]

Going back to my engineering classes, I can give you the perfect answer. It depends.

First let me say I don't work in the industry, so everything following is a wild-eyed guess.

If you look at total elapsed time for just assembly, most likely that is just a few hours. The longest time is probably to cure the paint. But remember that 60% of the Volt's content is international.

The lead time for the engine to be manufactured in Austria and the battery cells to be formed in South Korea probably extend a few weeks. Just how does a heavy piece of machinery get from Austria to Michigan? Are they trucked to Hamburg and loaded on a ship to Philadelphia? Or do the engines go by train to Rotterdam? I can't imagine they go by barge down the Rhine. Any way they go, time to shift from land to sea-lift to land again has to take more than a couple days. The inventory costs must be brutal. If it takes 20 days to move an engine from the lathes in Austria to the assembly in Hamtramck, at 60,000 cars per year, that would be 3300 or more engines in the pipeline.

Other parts, made in the US, say, the foam and the coverings for the seats, probably are made within a day or two of going into a car. Of course, if you trace the leather seats back to their origin as a newborn calf, well, that could be more than a year to grow the cow, transport to market, tan the leather, and deliver to Michigan.

See, it depends on when you start your stopwatch. But the assembly process, my guess is 2 to 4 hours.

Anyone want to set me right?

WVhybrid
status = 2000 !

[SharkVolt]

I wonder. Do they run the assembly plant day and night continuously, 24/7, or just 8 or maybe 16 hours a day? If we know that, simple math could tell you how often one comes off the line. HMMMM... Is the time to make one the amount of time between cars coming off the assembly line?

Jerry, still waiting for #536

[Cab Driver]

My chaperone for the Volt Unplugged test drive was Hans Kaiser, who was responsible for breaking up the Volt assembly tasks into line stations in the DHAM plant. Hans is a very knowledgeable guy. He said that there are about 150 stations on the DHAM line and that the line runs at a rate of 60 seconds per station. A given Volt, DTS, or Lucerne doesn't get work at all 150 stations. For example, the battery installation station isn't used for DTSs or Lucernes.

So, if a Volt were on the line continuously, it would take about two and a half hours to travel from start to finish, but it takes two time consuming passes through the paint shop (the second is after masking to paint the top black). There may be other off line excursions as well that I don't know about.

With respect to SharkVolt's question, DHAM currently runs a single 8 hour shift. If the demand increased enough to exceed the single shift capacity, a second or third shift could be added.

[scottf200]

Great input Cab Driver and others. As pointed about above the simple math can be done to get rough estimates as well.

260 build days = 52wk * 5days
250 build days = 260 build days - 10 holidays

10,000 volts per year
40v/day = 10,000 volts in 250 build days
5_volts/hr = 40v/8hrs

25,000 volts per year (2011)
100v/day = 25,000 volts in 250 build days
12.5_volts/hr = 100v/8hrs

45,000 volts per year (2012)
180v/day = 45,000 volts in 250 build days
22.5_volts/hr = 180v/8hrs (1 shift)
11.25_volts/hr = 180v/16hrs (2 shifts)