Saw an extremely long line of 04 silver Accord coupes.

It was great. My buddy was taking group of youth through there, he knows a guy that's a engineer in R&D, so he gave us a tour, I was able to tag along.

It's only about 30 minutes from my place. You guys here in Ohio...if you can go on a tour there...I suggest you do, it's great.

I'll try and mention a few things that stood out...most of the stats thrown at me I've forgotten already haha.

First off, the sheer size of the place is crazy. There are four plants in Marysville. The plant we toured puts out Accords and TL's. It's pretty loud, so you get headphones and transmitters and the tour guide gets a little mic.

A few other notable things. All employees wear the same simple white shirt and pants, even the president of the plant and the engineer that gave us the tour. We were able to be right there, dodging workers, forklifts, etc. It's so crazy to see a huge line of red TL's then see the start of a huge line of gray TL's. The first few TL's we saw coming off the final assembly were the 6speeds with sport suspension, brembo black calipers with "Acura" on the caliper, and nice big rotors. Pretty sweet looking car in person.

There are two shifts per day, each turning out 900 cars a shift in that plant alone. We saw #200 and company TL's finish up. We also saw them run through a little series of tests on the rollers, etc.

The other line had Accord coupes coming off. Every one was silver while we were there.

They never have any more than about 4 hrs worth of parts in the assembly plant at once...they are constantly coming in.

The robots are just crazy that they can be that accurate and consistant.

Another wild note is that the after the body panels are welded together, the doors go a separate way for full assembly, then return to the exact car they were fitted to for final assembly.

Also...if your car has a problem, and if you take it to the dealer, if pursued, they can track down exactly who was working that area at the time of assembly via the VIN and actually know who torqued that nut, etc.

My buddy also knows a guy that works there at the plant, but is a rep for PPG paint, and works with Honda to ensure paint quality, etc. Pretty cool to hear about the entire paint process, etc.

One thing that I can understand, but still kinda sucks is that they are photo nazi's...don't even think about a camera. I got busted by the security guard that was driving around while I tried to take a picture of the outside of the plant. All I managed was the little pic towards the outskirts of the lot.

Anyway, if I remember anything else cool, I'll add to this.

Bottom line, if you ever get the chance to tour the plant, do it.

My little tag:


The one meager pic I could get:

 

That must have been awsome. :thumbup:

 

damn thats f--in cool.....did it almost feel JDM?

 

WTF?

Do u know how they do the wiring in the cars. Cant imagine robots doing that.

 

what is "feeling" jdm...and why would it...we're in the us...usdm?...ay schmiddy...u really gotta tell us what camera u got...ur pics are always so crazy and so clear.....

 

that's dope, sounds like a great time. nice pic too, by the plant sign.

lmfao @ "did it almost feel jdm?"

 

I mentioned the robots just cause they were cool. From what I saw of assembly, probably 80-90% is done by humans. The robots welded body panels together; roof to frame, etc, and also installed the front and rear glass in the cars.

at certain parts in the line, the cars just keep moving, and guys are walking along, doing stuff to the cars. At other stages, the car keeps moving, but there is a moving sidewalk type setup for the guys to work on it while the car moves. At other stages, the car stops momentarily for work to be done, then continues on.

It's an amazingly smooth operation.

The guy we were with said that ~60% of the cars that are tested right off the line are good to go, and the rest need to go back for something to get adjusted.

Towards the end, these guys just bang on various stuff with rubber mallets to make sure stuff is tight, it's pretty wild.

There were more women on the line than I expected, maybe 20-30%. One thing is for sure...very monotonous work.

He gave some ballpark figures. Line workers hit the ceiling in about 2 years at around 50-60K salary. Non-union employees so Honda doesn't have to deal with that. Most all the workers seemed pretty upbeat, seems like Honda treats them pretty well with benefits, etc from what I heard.


Well you are nice, I wish I could have taken some nice pics inside to show you guys how cool it was. I time delayed pic would have been awesome haha.

Anyway, my camera isn't anything amazing, but I've taken 7K pics with it over 1 1/2 years, no problems. Sony DSC P71 3.2 MP.

 

Great stuff, John :thumbup:

I went down there like I told you last summer, but tours of the plant weren't going on then...I was pissed The sheer size of the place is INCREDIBLE.

 

Sounds fun...wish I could have went!

 

nervermind...I was drunk...sounds cool, anyway