FOX 2's Murray Feldman Trains on a General Motors Assembly Line

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WJBK) - FOX 2's Murray Feldman spent Tuesday morning training on the assembly line at General Motors' Orion Assembly Plant. They're going to build new, fuel efficient vehicles there within months. He got a firsthand look at how they say they're going to be better vehicles and at a lower cost for car buyers.

There are plenty of steps to memorize for every part that goes into every car.

In this training session -- a simulated work environment -- a handful of invited journalists trained just like UAW Local 5960 members will train for the roll out of the new Chevy Sonic and the Buick Verano -- the only subcompacts to be made in America.

"You have to realize our folks on the line are pretty smart. They have to be able to read a manifest and make decisions about what model and options (are) coming through and assemble it that way," said John W. Smith with General Motors.

There were some lighter and embarrassing moments. In one case, Murray forgot to install the steering wheel.

However, the point here is to work as a team with each member given the chance to present ideas and suggestions on ways to do the job better.

Every second on the line counts. Four seconds to walk and get nuts. Two seconds to walk back to pick up the tool. Six seconds to finger tighten the nuts that hold a part into place. We were given 60 seconds to complete the task, but it took us 73. That's wasted money for the company and extra cost for the car buyer.

Working together, though, we combined some jobs and rearranged others and cut our time to 48 seconds, which was huge.

"If that were really … a hundred jobs that you improved by roughly 40-percent, that much work time now is available either to bring in other work that you're paying for to be done elsewhere and fill that time up and save money that way, which reduces the cost per unit, or you may rebuild the jobs and enable you to do other quality tasks that you weren't able to do before and, again, save yourself money in the long run," said GM Manufacturing Manager Gerald Johnson.

Any worker can stop the line if they see something wrong. They will then work together to change the process. They don't change the product or the people, they perfect better methods of doing it from their own ideas.