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Wyoming GM plant producing heavy-duty pickup truck axles after $119M expansion
Wyoming GM plant producing heavy-duty pickup truck axles after $119M expansion
Gallery: GM Grand Rapids plant showcases renovations
WYOMING, MI -- Axles for the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks are now rolling off the line at the GM Components Holdings plant in Wyoming after a $119 million expansion.
After announcing its investment in the Wyoming plant in 2015, General Motors revealed Tuesday what the new assembly line would be producing: front and rear axles for its full-sized trucks.
The plant has the "latest and greatest technology," said Troy Comiskey, director of the plant at 2100 Burlingame Ave. SW.
"A lot of processes are highly automated," Comiskey said.
GM announces 300 new jobs, $119M expansion, at Wyoming plant
The 500,000 square foot expansion on the south end of the 1.8 million square foot facility will once again fully utilize the former Delphi plant.
Throughout the past two years, GM has renovated a 520,000-square-foot-long vacant space in its 1.8 million-square-foot Wyoming plant that now holds high-tech equipment capable of turning out 400 axles a day. Once finished, the axles are shipped to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where they are then painted and the trucks are assembled.
The line started assembling axles at the beginning of June, said Joe Frisch, launch manager for the new production line. The plant is currently producing about 200 axles a day on one shift of operations, Comiskey said.
About 250 workers have been hired to staff the new operation, with 50 additional jobs available as a second shift is added in the future, Comiskey said. Training for the jobs is intensive, Comiskey said, as one worker typically will operate three to five machines at once.
GM is getting back into the business of assembling axles after previously purchasing them from a competitor, Frisch said. The axles are made with aluminum and high-strength steel.
Among the new technology: self-guided forklifts. There are 10 roaming the floor of the plant 24 hours a day, bringing parts to workers in different areas of the assembly line as they request them. Part of the plant where gears are assembled for the axles is fully automated.
