[HomeGrown]

I was in the Tacoma plant in Baja Mexico last week & part of this week, helping install new weld jigs for the radiator support and driver's side inner fender. They build ONLY the double-cab with automatic tranny there, and are in a production ramp-up process. In terms of auto plants, the Mexico plant is pretty small. The plant has no robotic automation that I saw, although I didn't get to see inside the paint shop. Because the labor is so cheap, the put very little $$ into automation. In the body weld area, the underbody is manually pushed from one station to the next. Despite all the manual labor involved, the process is controlled very well, with exellent repeatability and dimensional control on the bodies. The final assembly lines appeared pretty typical. The fully assembled Tacos come off the final assembly line and go into another line where they get some final inspections, front end alignment, and then onto a set of high-speed rollers where I'm guessing they do some sort of vibration testing. All 4 wheels are spinning at what appears to be upwards of 120 mph.

Being a future Taco owner, I was more than a little distracted by all the nice trucks there in various stages of assembly, although I'm just looking to get a regular cab. What I really wanted to do was get a huge shopping cart to load up on all the goodies that aren't available on the regular cab truck. :whatwhat:

Very few people drive to the plant. Most, if not all of the production line workers are bussed there, and get lunch provided for them. Not a bad gig I'm sure, for the average Mexican worker there. Overall, the atmosphere was very pleasant and I met a few great guys there. I know a LOT of you Taco owners live in Cali., so you're probably accustomed to the great Mexican food there. We went up into the town of Tecate, and I had a burrito and a taco that totally became the benchmark standard by which all other tacos and burritos will henceforth be judged against.

 

[MINI2NUT]

My 8th grade class went on a tour of the Chevy Vega (remember that oil burner!) in Ohio many years ago. It taught me that I never wanted to work on an assembly line. Boring and mundane. I can still remember the job of one employee: Pump a few gallons of fuel into the tank at the end of the line. Over, and over, and over again. I was fascinated by the machinery and how raw materials entered the plant on one end a completed vehicle drives out the other.

 

[stuckTaco]

You know you should sneak a couple of camera phone photos for us to enjoy next time you visit the plant again.

 

[Pb]

Thanks for the info. So I guess the Baja plant is a lot different than the NUMMI plant. I wonder how much the workers get paid? And how their trucks compare to the ones built at NUMMI, quality-wise?