The plant is a showcase for "lean manufacturing," a multifaceted discipline that strives to eliminate wastes of time, energy and materials. Managers from organizations as diverse as Caterpillar Inc. and the Coast Guard have visited to learn.
How's this for lean? White Marsh bosses say they haven't sent one pound of production waste to the landfill in more than a year. Employees recycle hundreds of tons of scrap steel and aluminum. Packaging and wood pallets are burned for energy. Machining oil gets reused in fuel additives.
The plant was GM's eighth worldwide to be "landfill-free." Next year it'll get even greener, when it is scheduled to install five football fields' worth of solar panels that should cut electricity purchases by 20 percent. It will be GM's second factory rooftop solar setup. (The solar project is "on track" despite GM's cash shortage, says Raut.)
The factory is helping customers save energy and cut pollution, too. A year ago it began making transmissions for hybrid gas-electric vehicles such as the Chevrolet Tahoe, the GMC Yukon and even Chryslers made in Delaware.
Too bad the GM Detroit bosses aren't as sharp as the GM White Marsh workers. The plant has hit a rough patch because most of its transmissions are used in trucks and sport utility vehicles that dealers now can barely give away. GM again chose the wrong product for the wrong time.
Plant employment has fallen to 250 from 400 soon after it opened. There'll be more automaker downsizing even if the Big Three get government bailouts. This is almost certain now that ascendant Democrats seem to want to spread largesse to blue-collar employers as well as Wall Street. With its proven versatility and hybrid transmissions already coming off the line, however, White Marsh should eventually thrive.
The trick is to really, truly change. GM shares hit another 60-year low yesterday. If Detroit is to receive billions in taxpayer backing, it needs to get out of the future's way. That'll take government prodding and probably executive ejections.
The business that fiercely opposed improvements, from mandatory seat belts to mandatory air bags, must now get enthusiastic about a high-mileage, low-pollution economy. A factory off Interstate 95 that will soon have photovoltaic slabs on its roof is showing the way.
