Keith Seymore
Full Access Member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2015
- Posts
- 2,972
- Reaction score
- 9,623
- Location
- Motor City
- First Name
- Keith Seymore
- Truck Year
- 1987
- Truck Model
- R10
- Engine Size
- 4.3L
I feel like I should share this at some point:
I've been accused of making it sound like I was "everywhere all at once" back then and I don't want it to give that impression.
I've been thinking about writing a thread about "How I got so Smart", or something like that, but in a nutshell: it's "sneaking".
After 40 years at GM (45 in the industry now); across about a dozen different GM assembly plants (Flint, Pontiac, Ft Wayne, St Louis, Janesville, Oshawa, Fremont, Arlington, Silao, Wentzville, Mishawaka, Hamtramck come to mind), three or four pre-production shops and one skunk works (that I can't talk about) there's a lot of opportunities for an inquisitive guy to ask questions.
Even before I started my engineering curriculum at Flint I had a stint in Personnel. One of my jobs was to deliver the mail. As a result, one learns not only where all the "monuments" are in the plant, but three or four ways to get there: front ways, back ways, sneaky ways, etc.
While you are sneaking around you are getting to know folks and learning about their jobs, and learning about the process, by osmosis.
Even after that, as an "adult" when I would go to these various other plants for new model launch, I would ask my plant host to show me around ("...show me where you put the VINs on", or "...show me the paint body bank", or "take me out to paint repair") to further my understanding for use as a historian. They were happy to show off their place and I was genuinely interested (that is, I was not being manipulative to curry favor).
Being the engineering rep on the Program Team (2nd gen Denali and Escalade, 2003 product refresh, H2, Volt) gets you exposure to some high level people across the various functions (Purchasing, Quality, program mgmt, containerization, logistics) and how decisions get made.
Or - I would sneak around myself. I remember the first time I went to Wentzville they pretty much got me through the door and said "ok - we'll see you in a week". I had been there for about 10 minutes before they cut me loose to fend for myself, so - after finding where I was going to be working - I spent the rest of my time watching trucks get built and wandering around.
There is no shortage of things in a vehicle assembly plant to capture your imagination, if you are a car guy.
K
I've been accused of making it sound like I was "everywhere all at once" back then and I don't want it to give that impression.
I've been thinking about writing a thread about "How I got so Smart", or something like that, but in a nutshell: it's "sneaking".
After 40 years at GM (45 in the industry now); across about a dozen different GM assembly plants (Flint, Pontiac, Ft Wayne, St Louis, Janesville, Oshawa, Fremont, Arlington, Silao, Wentzville, Mishawaka, Hamtramck come to mind), three or four pre-production shops and one skunk works (that I can't talk about) there's a lot of opportunities for an inquisitive guy to ask questions.
Even before I started my engineering curriculum at Flint I had a stint in Personnel. One of my jobs was to deliver the mail. As a result, one learns not only where all the "monuments" are in the plant, but three or four ways to get there: front ways, back ways, sneaky ways, etc.
While you are sneaking around you are getting to know folks and learning about their jobs, and learning about the process, by osmosis.
Even after that, as an "adult" when I would go to these various other plants for new model launch, I would ask my plant host to show me around ("...show me where you put the VINs on", or "...show me the paint body bank", or "take me out to paint repair") to further my understanding for use as a historian. They were happy to show off their place and I was genuinely interested (that is, I was not being manipulative to curry favor).
Being the engineering rep on the Program Team (2nd gen Denali and Escalade, 2003 product refresh, H2, Volt) gets you exposure to some high level people across the various functions (Purchasing, Quality, program mgmt, containerization, logistics) and how decisions get made.
Or - I would sneak around myself. I remember the first time I went to Wentzville they pretty much got me through the door and said "ok - we'll see you in a week". I had been there for about 10 minutes before they cut me loose to fend for myself, so - after finding where I was going to be working - I spent the rest of my time watching trucks get built and wandering around.
There is no shortage of things in a vehicle assembly plant to capture your imagination, if you are a car guy.
K
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