Lansing Car Assembly
Lansing Car Assembly was a General Motors automobile factory in Lansing, Michigan. It contained two elements, a 1901 automobile plant in downtown Lansing, and the 1920 Durant Motors factory on Lansing's Far Westside.
The Lansing plant was the longest-operating automobile factory in the United States when it closed on May 6, 2005, and one of General Motors last assembly plants where vehicle bodies were made at one plant, and then trucked to another plant to be finished.[1]
The plant began demolition in the spring of 2006, and is scheduled to be completed by Summer of 2007. A new plant at nearby Delta Township took its place when it began production in 2006.
History
Lansing Car Assembly (LCA) began in 1901 when Ransom E. Olds moved his Olds Motor Works to the city. He set up his plant on the site of the fairgrounds next to the Grand River. This plant in downtown Lansing would later be known as Lansing Car Assembly - Chassis Plant.
The Durant plant on Verlinden Avenue, on Lansing's border with Lansing Township, opened in 1920. After the demise of Durant, it remained closed until GM purchased it in 1935. It restarted production for GM's Fisher Body division, later becoming the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac factory. Its final name was Lansing Car Assembly - Body Plant.
The last cars that Lansing Car Assembly produced were the Chevrolet Malibu/Chevrolet Classic, Oldsmobile Alero, and Pontiac Grand Am, which was the final vehicle built there.
LCA was regularly ranked among the most productive automobile assembly plants in North America. In 2002, it was ranked the number one most productive assembly plant in North America by The Harbour Report, the auto industry's leading measurement of plant efficiency.[2]
Lansing Car Chassis Assembly
Lansing Car Assembly - Chassis Plant, also known as Lansing Car Chassis Assembly, was a General Motors automobile factory in downtown Lansing, Michigan. It sat at a unique location between the two bridges of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard/Logan Street over the Grand River. It featured two separate assembly lines. Partially completed vehicles were transported by truck from the Body Plant to either the North Line "M" or the South Line "C" for completion. Upon completion, cars were driven off the assembly line and over Northbound Martin Luther King, Jr. using a skybridge. After final inspection, the cars were placed in staging yards to either be shipped by truck or by rail. The complex opened in 1902, closed in 2005, and was demolished in 2007. Harbour Consulting rated it as the sixth most efficient auto plant in North America in 2006[3].
Products
References
- "Last car body winds through Lansing GM plant". Detroit News. Retrieved May 10.
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- ^ Lansing GM plant ranks 1st in report, by Lori Hayes/Lansing State Journal, published June 14, 2002
- ^ Lansing GM plant ranks 1st in report, by Lori Hayes/Lansing State Journal, published June 14, 2002
- ^ "Efficient auto factories aren't spared the ax". Detroit News. Retrieved June 2.
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