Lansing Car Assembly

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Olds Motor Works, about 1910

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] General Motors began demolition of the plant in the spring of 2006, and demolition was completed in 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.

Lansing Car Assembly - Body Shop (Plant #6)

The plant along Verlinden Avenue, on Lansing's border with Lansing Township, opened in 1920 as a factor for Durant Motor Works. 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. The plant built the very last Oldsmobile.

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.[1]

Lansing Car Assembly - Main Plant (Plant #1)

The main plant was located in downtown Lansing, Michigan located along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard/Logan Street at the Grand River. It sat on the original site of the Michigan State Fairgrounds. The plant also included the unique Lansing GM Building 150 which sat in between north and sounthbound Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard bridges.

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 first factory on site opened in 1902 as part of Olds Motor Works, and became part of General Motors when they bought that company out in 1908. The complex was closed in 2005, finally being demolished in 2007. Harbour Consulting rated it as the sixth most efficient auto plant in North America in 2006.[2]

Products

See also

References