To those who are not car enthusiasts, most if not all of the processes behind building a vehicle might seem rather uninteresting, boring even. But GM’s Opel has managed to take footage of the Insignia production line in Ruesselsheim, Germany, and turn it into quite the spectacle in this YouTube video.
Having started life as Adam Opel’s sewing machine plant in 1867, the Ruesselsheim plant is responsible for the production of the Insignia sedan, and will soon be tasked with producing Opel’s upcoming flagship SUV. The addition of the new SUV to the facility’s production line is part of a $1 billion investment from GM, which will also facilitate the production of 27 new Opel models and 17 new engines, not all of which will be built in Ruesselsheim. The current-generation Insignia is set to be replaced in 2017 with an all-new, second-generation model inspired by the Monza Concept . And the second-gen Insignia will likely also be built at the plant.
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The robot ballet starting at the 22 second mark is especially interesting to see in real time, not the speed up version of this video. The dozen or more one-armed robots produce complete door assemblies, each one performing one task and then gracefully handing it over to a neighboring robot. They are actually enclosed in a cage – I don’t believe that they could run away, but they might be tempted to fling a part thru the hall — or a human might get into the way, and the robot is not programmed to avoid unexpected objects in the path of its arm’s movements..
I had a chance to watch it at the open day for the 150th anniversary of the company.