Today’s highly-variable auto market calls for very different production approaches compared to those of the 80s and 90s. Among the present-day best practices of automotive manufacturing is the ability of a single production line to build a variety of vehicles, from sedans to SUVs — and anything in between.
As such, we thought it poignant to mention that the ever-popular Chevy Equinox mid-size crossover and Impala full-size sedan are built on the same line at GM’s Oshawa facilities in Ontario Canada.
Called the Flex line, the assembly process is so flexible (pun intended) that the line is capable of making models built on completely different platforms: the Equinox rides on a revised version of GM’s Theta platform while the Impala uses the W-body architecture that’s been around for more than two decades. That should give GM nay-sayers something to chew on as they praise the manufacturing flexibility and prowess of Honda and Toyota.
With over 10 million square feet (930,000 m²) of factory floor, Oshawa Car Assembly resulted from the integration of two car plants in 2008, whereupon it was converted to a state-of-the-art Flexible Manufacturing facility. It currently employs nearly 5,400 hourly employees and 400 salaries employees.
Comments
I hate to say this but the Impala has to go bye bye and soon!
That’s it does. Funny thing is, it’s selling like Crazy. Outselling the Taurus by a factor of 2… Maybe even 3! Can you believe that!
Just to clarify–only a very small portion of the Chevy Equinox is built in Oshawa. The CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario builds 1100 units of the Equinox and it’s sister vehicle, the GMC Terrain every day, 6 days a week. Oshawa only builds 240 Equinox’s per day and those 240 are actually overflow from the CAMI plant. CAMI stamps, welds the bodies together and assembles the doors, then ships them to Oshawa for final assembly.
Very true. We were simply attempting to express the flexibility of the line — and its ability to build two different vehicles. 🙂
I honestly didn’t know this; interesting, and thanks for sharing. I was reading on the Johnny Londoff Chevrolet blog about the Equinox- I never knew it got such good fuel efficiency for a car of its size either!
Does anyone know how the production split works currently for the Equinox; I understand that besides Ingersoll/Oshawa, additional units are manufactured in the US, and that production location depends on exterior colour?