As a service tech for a company that makes printers, I've walked through a few auto plants myself. The Chrysler van plant in Fenton,Mo. is impressive. As I remember, 600 vans per shift roll off that line. The sheer number of raw parts at that plant is something. Literally thousands of batteries, exhaust, rotors, you name it. I installed the first copier in the Wentzville, Mo. GM plant before it opened. (Well attempted to anyway- the plant was union. One union unloaded the truck, another moved the equipment. Once in place, I started work but was told to stop, as anything that was electric had to be installed by another union person. Now, this copier was 20 some odd feet long, and weighed a couple thousand pounds, not a .10 walk up gas station unit. I handed the guy the install and service manuals, all 500 plus pages, and went for coffee. After he struggled for about 2 hours,he and the foreman agreed to watch me for the next 2 days, while I worked.) At that time they were building BOP (Bonnevilles, Delta88, and Park Aves.). Huge sheets of steel came in on rail cars, loaded into presses, and out would come a fender, quarter, or roof. The robots were very cool to watch. Paint was on an upper level, cars went up raw, and came down pretty, where the engine/drivetrain was loaded from underneath. But the coolest plant ever was the GM plant on Union near downtown. They built trucks and Vettes there on the same line. It was just crazy to see a truck, then an El Camino, then a Vette roll by. Mostly complete bodies received engines by coming up from underground, and the heartbeat of big V-8's idling was everywhere. At one point, 12,000 people at a time were present on site, and shift change was just a mess. If it's this cool for me to just observe, the actual workers who touch the product, building a car so that someone can get somewhere, must be really something. Or maybe not- could be just a job to them. But ya never know who may ride in that car and see your work, or get their life saved cause it got a sick child to the hospital, or a parent to their daughters wedding. I would think there would be a level of pride along the line somewhere....
