Sometimes a break with the past is critical to future success. And that is exactly what happened to several key materials handling processes that support the assembly line at CAMI Automotive's 1.64-million-square-foot assembly plant, two hours north of Detroit in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada. Read our entire original article.

“We broke the mold of how we had done business for 15 years,” says Larry MacAdam, a materials industrial engineer at CAMI.

The result is an entirely new system that optimizes the delivery of parts from a separate but nearby crossdock facility to the receiving dock and the assembly line in Ingersoll. The 18-year-old plant produces the Chevrolet Equinox, Pontiac Torrent and Suzuki XL-7. CAMI is a joint venture between General Motors and Suzuki Automotive.

One of the key elements is a system of automatic guided carts—a simplified version of an automatic guided vehicle—that delivers sequenced plastic bumper coverings to the line.

In addition, the whole delivery process is enabled by wireless call buttons. These communicate everything from when parts need to be replenished at the line to when the dock doors are free for a yard driver to remove and stage the next trailer.

Finally, all bins and racks are designed with wheels or are put up on fabricated wheeled dollies that allow them to be delivered to the line with tuggers. The delivery of parts by tugger allows for five parts to be delivered to the line at once.

“With this system, we can operate the plant using just-in-time, just-in-sequence principles to deliver 10,000 totes, bins and racks of parts daily while holding very little inventory,” says MacAdam. In fact, the new delivery system allows CAMI to deliver parts for 190,000 vehicles a year with the same number of team members once used to deliver parts for 50,000 vehicles.

The combination of automatic guided carts and real-time communication has transformed the way the CAMI plant makes vehicles. “We may be 18 years old,” says MacAdam, “but with the way we deliver parts, and the inventive ways we are using these new systems, we're considered one of the new plants.”

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