Toyota, Ford Plants Win Top Rankings

Car assembly plants operated by Toyota Motor Corp. in Canada and Ford Motor Co. in Atlanta and Chicago were the most productive in North America last year, ousting the Nissan Motor Co. plant in Tennessee from the top spot it held for the previous five years. Among light-truck plants, Ford’s Louisville, Ky., factory also edged Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn., plant in the annual productivity rankings released by Harbour & Associates Inc. The Nissan plant last year produced Altima sedans and Frontier pickup trucks. Harbour ranks plant productivity by the average number of labor hours it takes to build each vehicle. The Cambridge, Ontario, plant, which makes the Toyota Corolla sedan, ranked first at 17.66 hours, followed by Ford’s plants that make the Taurus and Mercury Sable: Atlanta at 17.72 hours, and Chicago at 18.09. Nissan’s plant ranked fourth at 18.97 hours. Ford’s Louisville plant, which makes the Ranger pickup and Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicles, ranked first among truck plants at 19.29 hours, followed by the Nissan plant at 19.77 and the GM-Toyota joint venture plant in Fremont, Calif., which makes the Toyota Tacoma pickup.