WATERTOWN TOWNSHIP, MI—Automotive supplier Kirchhoff Van-Rob Inc. will add at least 125 jobs after it opens its new $25 million assembly plant here next month.
VANCE, AL—The National Labor Relations Board ruled that Mercedes-Benz U.S. International must rescind a rule in its employee handbook prohibiting workers from talking about a union in work areas while not on work time.
ANN ARBOR, MI—Robot orders and shipments in North America set new records in the first nine months of 2014, according to Robotic Industries Association.
SEATTLE—Lean manufacturing has enabled Boeing to make dramatic improvements in efficiency. Assembly time for the 777 jetliner has been reduced from 71 days to 37. Assembly time for the 737 jetliner has been cut from 20 days to 11.
SAN ANTONIO—The ranks of military veterans keep growing at Toyota’s assembly plant here. Since 2010, the plant has hired more than 40 veterans to work on its maintenance staff alone. Veterans account for 20 percent of the plant’s skilled maintenance force, company officials said.
STUTTGART, Germany—Porsche’s assembly plant here is a perfectly lit, technologically advanced, human-intensive temple to Teutonic efficiency and monomania.
ELY, UK—British systems integrator GB Innomech has built an automated assembly system that uses vision-guided robots to produce spools of film ribbons for security and identity cards.
DEARBORN, MI—Two things are missing in the body shop of the revamped Ford Rouge Center, which includes the Dearborn Truck assembly plant making the 2015 F-150 out of aluminum: sparks and noise.
STE-THERESE, QC—Some 900 employees at PACCAR’s truck assembly plant here have rejected the company’s final contract negotiation offer. After two months of negotiations, the contract was rejected by 76 percent of employees only hours after management decided to lock out its employees.
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