Besides using ostrich feathers to deliver a high quality paint job, GM assembly plants also use various tools to ensure world-class product quality. These tools typically go mostly unnoticed, despite their importance to GM quality standards. One such tool is the gap stick, which helps ensure uniform body panel fitment on all vehicles before they leave the plant.
“Gap stick” in use at GM Detroit-Hamtramck Plant on a 2016 Chevrolet Impala
The Process
GM plant employees receive extensive training on the flushness and ideal fitment of body panels, as per GM quality standards. To guarantee that vehicles meet tight the standards, employees use a tool called the gap stick to validate the spacing between the body panels of vehicles coming off the line, ensuring consistency and uniformity along each panel of the vehicle’s body.
Gap sticks are made from plastic to prevent scratches to a vehicle’s exterior paint. The tool is used frequently throughout the assembly process, and along several areas. Throughout the build process, gap sticks measure approximately 50 fits and flushness points on the vehicle’s body, with every part from the front fascia and hood to the rear fascia and spoiler are checked for quality and uniform fitment.
“Gap stick” in use at GM Detroit-Hamtramck Plant on a 2016 Chevrolet Impala
At the Detroit-Hamtramck plant in Detroit – which GM is scheduled to idle later in 2019 – quality inspectors take gap measurements in about 60 seconds, enabling them to inspect and document the findings of 45 vehicles per hour.
There are nearly 4,000 employees at the GM’s Ft. Wayne Assembly Plant, where the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickup trucks are built. Each quality engineer averages a minimum of 20 hours of on-the-job and classroom training, with the amount of training required and received depending on the difficulty of the task. The plant’s Quality Department has a team of more than 250 people on three revolving shifts responsible for conducting several detailed tests and standardized inspections on every vehicle produced at the facility.
The GM Authority Take
We commend GM for using technologies and implementing processes – such as as the gap stick – to improve the ultimate quality of its product. The results, however, have varied – with GM improving in quality and reliability ratings in some years, while faltering in others.
Even so, it’s really quite amazing when once considers all the people, steps, and tools involved in making just one vehicle, let alone hundreds of thousands and, ultimately, millions units.
Comments
Gap sticks are not new. They are a great cheap way to check gaps.
As for faltering in other areas. Most of these have been two areas. One is electrical items. These new systems in the new vehicles are more complicated than ever and becoming more difficult to maintain.
Then factor in that often the complains are not with the actual failure of the system but more often the interphase.
Case in point Cadillacs most often quality issue was the Cue. It operated as it should but it was just not user friendly to someone just new to the vehicle. It worked fine with some learning.
While Cue was a failure in being user friendly it was not really a quality issue.
How about the cheap plastic interiors and horrible seats. The interior of every GM vehicle, even the Corvette is a bargain bin joke.
Yeah, scott3, the quality issue with Cadillacs must be the user friendliness of the Cue system. It’s funny that users of Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus, Hyundais, and the other of the 14 manufactures that finish ahead of Cadillac in Dependability don’t have that problem. It must be those people are smarter, technology wise and as consumers.
Good one Brian W. I never thought of it that way, but when we get an Audi we will get smarter on tech.
Win, Win.
Scott3 and GM CAN NOT SEE IT.
Blame, cut and run, blame, cut and run.
scott3,
You are full of s**t, just outright a LIER.
Cade and point the Cadillac CUE. Yes it is a quality issue, or was.
For #1 the screen delaminates in the heat, this has NOTHING to do with a learning curve. #2 The screen freezes, NON RESPONSIVE, without warning just driving down the road. #3 sometimes it pairs great with a phone other times not.
The CUE screen and the screen interface is a QUALITY and FAULTY DESIGNED system PERIOD. And to top it off GM-Cadillac has ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE.
WHY CAN’T YOU SEE IT. Now GM has a new AD on ” we make as good of cars as Toyota and Honda”. Just saw it on the TV. Again even if GM does have as good of cars they will NOT be able to convince people of that because when your car has trouble and we all agree they ALL do GM WELL NOT BE THERE FOR YOU. Can you read? look at the sites, forums. Until GM realizes it HAS to take care of the CUSTOMER this will NOT change. As the world progresses and others realize where the profits are all that will make a difference is the CUSTOMER SERVICE. In the USA this is the MOST cared about item when purchasing anything. SERVICE after the SALE.
And again GM has ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE.
” O ” by the way I received another letter from Cadillac on our ATS now the cam position solenoids are faulty last month it was the transmission switch for the manual mode will just shift to manual without warning ( that will be great on snow and ice ) on this faulty part issue you will LOSE.
By the way I still get the letters and ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE. Dealer will NOT fix the FAULTY PARTS. I am still waiting for you to provide a number I can call and talk to someone that can do more than read the letter back to me that I was sent.
By the way WHEN the CUE system does work it is GREAT and we love our ATS. The faulty parts, leaks, and factory tune shift points are not good, but again the ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE is just a cherry on the top of Cadillac dissatisfaction.
Yawn!
Funny how the few same people have the same issues over and over and most never have much if any issues.
If it is that bad stop complaint by stop buying and become someone else’s problem.
Yep !!
Typical GM response, go somewhere else then. And they have in the millions. You do know what market share is don’t you.
I buy GM because I love GM vehicles. On average, or most of my GM vehicles over the last 38 years have been GREAT. And the interaction with the GM dealership I grew up with was great.
This is NOT complaining just stating FACT. I have the letters. The last two vehicles and the new dealership experience is TERRIBLE. How is it MY fault when I receive a letter from GM stating my vehicles have FAULTY parts.
When GM has no market share in sedans and sells less and less high profit trucks there will be trouble, and there is. Do you know even if you make $100,000 in profit per vehicle if you only sell 2 that adds up to $200,000 profit. Never ever in the history of a company has it been good losing market share. Cadillac – Sears – GE – All retail stores in history. Loosing market share is losing business.
Too bad GM didn’t send any gap sticks to the Corvette plant. I recently bought a Z06 and the body panel alignment looks like it was done by 1st graders.
They use them there too.
Vette panels always have bad gaps as the body expands and contracts. Nature of the sheet molded plastic panels.
How big of alignment ? We don’t know ? Jeff did not say ? Maybe his got skipped, or someone didn’t do it.
However before ANY details are known.
scott3 is all over the GM excuse and blame.
Yep, excuses, blame, cut and run to a new and better deal. You just wait. And wait. And wait.
And wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.
Yeah, my Z06 is lacking in the spacing department. There are panels touching and causing paint to chip. I would rather have too much space rather than not enough.
Aw, c’mon guys, go easy on Scott, GM has maybe paid him well to say all those nice things. Truth is, you’d think that after more than a century of doing this, all the big companies would have it all figured out by now. And maybe they do but things get muddled up with the bean counters, lawyers and bureaucracies only rivals by our loving federal friends. One might be more forgiving to someone like Tesla, being a bunch of silicon valley newbies to the car game. In the 80s and 90s I worked at GM and Ford stores and saw first hand how the policies were to just punt the many known problems to the customer and let the dealer deal with it – hey maybe that’s why their called dealers. Anyway, in the same time frame the Japanese imports were selling well sorted products and we know how that worked out for the big 3. As we learned from the Titanic, It seems to take forever to get a bloated boat to turn.
Paid?
I would accuse you of it but you are too clueless to be convincing.
Ah, just havn’ a little fun here, there is enough strife in the world, don’t need to add to it here, but I have to congratulate you on being the very first person in my 60+ years to call me clueless. It must take some real creds to do that.