The making of an Automobile
The products manufactured by the automotive industry are the passenger cars, trucks, vans, sport concerned vehicles, busses, and recreational vehicles. The industry is one of the largest industry in the US and employees over 2 million people.
Automotive industries are mostly concentrated in the Great Lakes area, especially in Michigan, but it can be found in most of the other parts of the country as well.
Employment opportunities in the industry offers tens and thousands of job to the higher skilled personnel, such as, highly educated scientists, engineers, managers, and other professionals. It also has large openings for thousands of skilled workers, who largely work in the production line, and unskilled laborers.
Generally, each of the automobile manufacturers bring out new line of vehicles every year, the planning and design of which start at least two to three years earlier before you find it in a dealer’s showroom. Before these new line of vehicles are brought out, the planning stage of these new models are first considered by the company’s highest officials, along with their product planning group.
Here the broad outline of the vehicles are decided, deciding on matters, such as, whether to emphasize on luxury models or to consider such matters as to keep the price low. The aspects on safety measures, fuel economy, the size, the weight, and air pollution control are also considered and decided.
There-after, highly skilled design engineers, take the conceptualized car to the drawing board and sketch out the model of the vehicle, and places the same to the higher officials for approval. After this has been approved, the stylists get on to the job, with highly skilled model makers, to build a small-scale replica of the vehicle, before it is taken for a full model replica using clay or fiberglass.
The model may undergo further changes before it is finally approved and goes to the production floor. The different sub-assemblies for the vehicle are taken up for production, with some taken up in-house and the other outsourced to ancillaries.
These ancillaries have the skill and infrastructure to produce vehicle sub-assemblies, such as gears and brake assemblies. In automobile industry, some of the highest skilled workers are found in these sub-contracted companies, and they include tool and die makers, machine tool operators, people skilled in pattern making, and machinists to name a few.
These ancillaries make different parts of the car starting from the major body parts of the car, the chassis, the frames, and all other metal parts that go in the vehicle.
Before the metal parts are assembled in the vehicle, they are put through many processes, such as sanding, painting or polishing, and this involves skilled workers having expertise in doing such things. They are generally the polishers, the metal finishers, the production painters, and the electroplaters. The upholstery is prepared by the industry upholsters, and the windows are set up by other skilled workers.
The finished material from the sub-contracting companies are then shipped to the auto plant, which finds their way to the assembly floor, where these parts are used to manufacture the vehicle. At first the various parts are sent to the assembly floor which is followed by the chassis of the vehicle. The chassis moves on a conveyor belt along the final assembly lines. Each time it passes through a section, the assembly operators fit the required parts to the chassis of the vehicle, with each of the assembly workers doing what he is responsible for.
The assembled unit of the chassis then passes through the final assembly section, where the seats, fittings, dashboard controls, lights, bumpers and other accessories are fitted to complete the production of the vehicle.
Automotive industries are mostly concentrated in the Great Lakes area, especially in Michigan, but it can be found in most of the other parts of the country as well.
Employment opportunities in the industry offers tens and thousands of job to the higher skilled personnel, such as, highly educated scientists, engineers, managers, and other professionals. It also has large openings for thousands of skilled workers, who largely work in the production line, and unskilled laborers.
Generally, each of the automobile manufacturers bring out new line of vehicles every year, the planning and design of which start at least two to three years earlier before you find it in a dealer’s showroom. Before these new line of vehicles are brought out, the planning stage of these new models are first considered by the company’s highest officials, along with their product planning group.
Here the broad outline of the vehicles are decided, deciding on matters, such as, whether to emphasize on luxury models or to consider such matters as to keep the price low. The aspects on safety measures, fuel economy, the size, the weight, and air pollution control are also considered and decided.
There-after, highly skilled design engineers, take the conceptualized car to the drawing board and sketch out the model of the vehicle, and places the same to the higher officials for approval. After this has been approved, the stylists get on to the job, with highly skilled model makers, to build a small-scale replica of the vehicle, before it is taken for a full model replica using clay or fiberglass.
The model may undergo further changes before it is finally approved and goes to the production floor. The different sub-assemblies for the vehicle are taken up for production, with some taken up in-house and the other outsourced to ancillaries.
These ancillaries have the skill and infrastructure to produce vehicle sub-assemblies, such as gears and brake assemblies. In automobile industry, some of the highest skilled workers are found in these sub-contracted companies, and they include tool and die makers, machine tool operators, people skilled in pattern making, and machinists to name a few.
These ancillaries make different parts of the car starting from the major body parts of the car, the chassis, the frames, and all other metal parts that go in the vehicle.
Before the metal parts are assembled in the vehicle, they are put through many processes, such as sanding, painting or polishing, and this involves skilled workers having expertise in doing such things. They are generally the polishers, the metal finishers, the production painters, and the electroplaters. The upholstery is prepared by the industry upholsters, and the windows are set up by other skilled workers.
The finished material from the sub-contracting companies are then shipped to the auto plant, which finds their way to the assembly floor, where these parts are used to manufacture the vehicle. At first the various parts are sent to the assembly floor which is followed by the chassis of the vehicle. The chassis moves on a conveyor belt along the final assembly lines. Each time it passes through a section, the assembly operators fit the required parts to the chassis of the vehicle, with each of the assembly workers doing what he is responsible for.
The assembled unit of the chassis then passes through the final assembly section, where the seats, fittings, dashboard controls, lights, bumpers and other accessories are fitted to complete the production of the vehicle.
