Car making's all-star line-up: report cites Nissan, Honda and Toyota at top. (Import Export).

If you want to know which car companies are manufacturing all-stars, just ask Ron Harbour and his crew.

Nissan, Honda and Toyota had the most productive assembly, stamping and powertrain manufacturing operations in North America last year, according to The Harbour Report North America 2001.

The report, which was first published in 1989, measures assembly, stamping and powertrain productivity performances--plant by plant, and company by company--for automotive manufacturers in North America. Harbour and Associates is a Troy, MI- based manufacturing and management consulting and automotive research firm.

"For the seventh consecutive year, Nissan led all 10 companies in the report in overall assembly productivity, and the company's Smyrna, TN, operation was the No. 1 plant in both the car and truck segments," says the management consultant. "Honda finished second to Nissan in assembly productivity, and was first in both stamping and engine labor productivity. And Toyota finished at or near the top of the rankings throughout the report's assembly, stamping and powertrain segments."

How Big Three fared

Among the former Big Three automakers, Harbour and Associates reports, Ford Motor Co. continued to have the best results in vehicle assembly. Ford had three of the top 10 car and five of the top 10 truck plants, and Ford plants ranked No. 1 in five of 12 individual categories.

But General Motors got the best marks for improvement. The car maker showed the most progress of any company in the 2001 report, which notes: "GM was the most improved multiple plant company in assembly (9.4 percent), stamping equipment productivity (10 percent) and engine labor productivity (5.2 percent). What's more, GM took the overall lead in hours per transmission for the first time."

"For the past several years, GM has been working very hard on implementing lean manufacturing systems and processes throughout its operations," explains Ron Harbour, president of Harbour and Associates. "As shown in The Harbour Report 2001 results, it is evident that GM has made significant improvement in its manufacturing operations."

Who did what well

Here are some of the highlights from this year's report:

Assembly: "Nissan's car assembly operation finished second and its truck operation was third in the 2000 report's hours per vehicle (HPV) rankings. Aided by a 16.5-percent boost in production, both Smyrna operations finished No. 1 in the 2001 report as the plant showed an overall 7.1-percent HPV improvement. The car line's HPV of 16.33 moved Smyma ahead of last year's overall leader, Ford Atlanta, which finished No. 2 with a HPV of 16.93. And the Smyma truck line's HPV of 18.06 was well ahead of Ford Twin Cities (19.49), last year's truck leader."

"Nissan's assembly operation in Smyrna has posted solid performances in Productivity measures in recent years, despite operating at lower than full capacity levels," Harbour says. "Smyrna used the time when the plant was underutilized to find ways to improve overall operations - and the continuous improvements efforts paid off."

Stamping: "Foreign-owned manufacturers Toyota and Honda showed the strength of their stamping operations across The Harbour Report's basket of stamping measures.

"Toyota was No. 1 in two labor productivity measures, hits per worker and pieces per worker, and two equipment productivity measures, hits per hour and pieces per hour. In addition to leading the hours per vehicle category, Honda also was No. 1 in vehicles per line. Mitsubishi led all companies in average die changeover time."

"As in years past, Honda and Toyota both had outstanding performances throughout their stamping operations," Harbour says. "But GM's improvement in stamping equipment productivity also must be noted. Over the last 10 years, the company has invested heavily in its stamping operation. The results have been much improved performances in labor and equipment productivity, and cost, safety and quality measures also have gotten better."

Powertrain: "Honda was the overall leader in hours per engine (HPE) at 3.05, and in the 6-cylinder segment with a HPE of 3.39. Toyota placed second overall at 3.17, and second in the 6-cylinder segment at 3.88. But the order was reversed in the 4-cylinder segment, as Toyota was No. 1 at 2.61 and Honda was second at 2.79. GM, with a HPE of 4.87, moved well ahead of Ford (6.23) and DaimlerChrysler (6.31) in the 8-cylinder segment.

"With an overall HPE of 4.50, GM widened its gap with Ford and DaimlerChrysler, which both were at 5.68 HPE. GM also had five of the 10 most improved engine operations, including Toluca, Mexico, which made the most progress of any engine plant in the report with a 41.2-percent improvement.

"GM became the leader in transmission productivity for the first time with a hours per transmission (HPT) of 4.50, which was only slightly better than the performances of Ford (4.67) and DaimlerChrysler (4.76). But DaimlerChrysler made the biggest advancement of any company with a 6.2-percent improvement in HPT."

Overall: Harbour says the performances of many of the manufacturers were impacted by the industry slowdown that took place at the end of 2000. "The results in 2000 proved that the factors making companies more competitive in good times are even more critical when times get tougher," he says. "Most of the automotive manufacturers have been working on lean manufacturing, quality and safety, and improving product and process engineering. But the reality was some companies were working harder at it--and better at it--than others.

"With the end-of-the-year slowdown, the companies and plants that were most aggressive in the areas of lean manufacturing, continuous improvement and other strategic initiatives generally were impacted less in their productivity performances."

Copies of The Harbour Report North America 2001 can be ordered by calling 248/641-0707 or toll-free at 800/208-1353. The report is $495 and payment by credit card is accepted.

Hyundai joins RWT in NA robot market

Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has announced it is entering the North American robot market. Hyundai has formed a strategic alliance with Robotic Workspace Technologies (RWT), Ft. Myers, FL.

HHI's field-proven, high-tech robot manipulator will be combined with RWT's Universal Robot Controller and RobotScript software. The combination of HHI robots with the RobotScript universal programming language will provide endusers with a cost-effective, non-proprietary solution for their automation requirements, says RWT.

The official release of fully integrated systems is expected in mid-September.

"HHI has an extensive line of industrial robots with payloads ranging from 6 kilograms to 165 kilograms and covering a full spectrum of applications from welding and material handling to palletizing, et cetera," says Heung-Bae Kim, export sales manager of Hyundai.

More than 5,000 Hyundai robots have been produced for the automotive, electronic and food industries. Hyundai robots are used extensively in the Hyundai Motor Co.'s automotive production lines.

According to RWT, Hyundai's decision to offer an open architecture control "will undoubtedly set a precedent for the rest of the robotics industry. This is the direction endusers have been asking for, meeting the goals of a standardized robot programming language, open architecture PC control and elimination of costly, proprietary spare parts."

"We are pleased to have been chosen to combine our RobotScript software and Universal Robot Controller with the Hyundai line of robots," says Walter Weisel, RWT president and CEO. "Hyundai's full line of robots is very impressive and they will obviously do well as they offer an excellent price to performance ratio."

The Classic Companies, headquartered in Troy, MI, have been chosen as Hill's partner for sales, service and systems integration for the North America market. Robotic Workspace Technologies, Ft. Myers, FL, http://www.rwt .com, circle 451.

JMTBA taps Onishi as chairman

As the new chairman of the Japan Machine Tool Builders Association (JMTBA), Tadashi Onishi is stating that he will follow his predecessor's basic policy to "make the industry an open and fair one."

Onishi, chairman of Toyoda Machine Works Ltd., succeeded Toyo Kato, senior advisor of Toyoda Machine Works, as JMTBA chairman in the spring. "I will put into action the four C's of change, challenge, creation and communication," Onishi says. "At the same time, I would like to initiate undertakings to ensure the further growth association."