GM to Resume Second Shift at Van Nuys Plant : Team Concept Techniques, Improved Sales Help Save Jobs of 2,190 on Furlough
General Motors said on Monday that it will call back to work the second shift at its Van Nuys plant next month, returning to the assembly line 2,190 workers who were indefinitely laid off last July.
The move comes amid improved sales for Chevrolet Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds, which are built there. It also marks the plant’s full-scale introduction of Japanese-style “team concept” work rules, narrowly approved by the local rank and file last May.
Van Nuys plant manager Ernest D. Schaefer said resumption of the night shift was a direct result of the workers’ approval of “team concept” techniques. “A lot of union folks took a big risk, and it’s paid off for everybody,” Schaefer said. “Team concept has saved this plant.”
The goal of the new manufacturing system is to reduce defects, improve quality and thus sell more cars. By making teams of workers responsible for entire auto subassemblies, such as transmissions or doors, workers not only have several jobs to do instead of single, mundane tasks, but, it is hoped, they will also have more motivation to do the job right.
The San Fernando Valley factory, long endangered because of its distance from Midwestern parts suppliers, was spared from a round of GM plant closings in November. A plant in Norwood, Ohio, the only other factory which makes the same models as Van Nuys, is to be shut permanently at the end of August.
The Van Nuys plant is seen as a test case for GM, as the nation’s largest auto maker tries to reverse its sliding market share. Indeed, six of GM’s 43 assembly plants in North America are closed for two weeks because of high car inventory levels.
GM also announced Monday that it plans to temporarily close or slow production at three other factories.
If the team concept works in Van Nuys, GM officials say it will likely be put into place at other plants. To date, the only Big Three car factory that uses such extensive worker participation techniques is the successful GM-Toyota joint venture in Fremont, Calif.
Since July, the laid-off workers at Van Nuys were paid from a supplemental unemployment benefits fund contributed to by the workers and administered by GM as part of its contract with the United Auto Workers. Laid-off workers are eligible to receive 95% of their take-home pay for up to a year, depending on the amount of money in the fund.
Workers Took Courses
“None of us knew if we’d get to go back before the money ran out,” said Larry Barker, 37, of Simi Valley, who last worked the second shift in the body shop. “It’s been hard. Sitting around the house has been boring.”
In recent months, the UAW and GM have both promised that the second shift at the Van Nuys plant would return sometime in 1987.
Selected first- and second-shift workers have been taking team concept courses since last fall in topics such as conflict resolution and group dynamics in order to serve as trainers for the rest of the work force.
The Van Nuys plant will be closed from April 30 to May 8, when all 2,500 first-shift workers are to take classes at a Woodland Hills junior high school. Second-shift workers will take similar classes from May 11 to May 19.
On May 20, the Van Nuys plant will operate in two shifts with the team concept finally in place. But car production initially will be 25% slower than usual, plant manager Schaefer said, to work out any flaws in the new system. He said he hopes the plant will be up to speed by the start of the 1988 model year in August and producing 60 Camaros and Firebirds an hour.
Sales for those model cars are going well, largely because of special rebate incentives, a GM official said. Camaro and Firebird inventory levels on dealer lots are at about 60 days, which is considered optimal, Schaefer said.
