[August 12, 2011] GM's employees show off operations of Lockport plant Tweet Aug 12, 2011 (The Buffalo News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Stasia Meyers was able Thursday to show her children and father, as well as nearly 1,500 other people, where she works. The visitors to General Motors Components Holding LLC in Lockport were taking part in a nationwide thank-you from General Motors. GM plants in 54 communities invited neighbors to look at the company they had supported with a federal bailout in 2009. "They just loved walking through and seeing where I worked," said Meyers, who toured the plant with her family during her lunch hour. "They had a ton of questions. Now my son wants to work here." Her father, Bob Fox, had retired 11 years ago after working at the plant for 39 years. Fox and his family are part of a generations-long story, starting when Herbert Harrison founded Harrison Radiator Corp. in Lockport in 1910. GM bought Harrison Radiator in 1918, and the plant later became part of Delphi, a division spun off into a separate company, in 1995. In 2009, it returned to GM as General Motors Components Holdings. The tours also sought to raise community and buyer enthusiasm for what workers do, said Dan Hesch, assistant plant manager. While workers are excited about their jobs, conveying those sentiments to the community and the buyers has been difficult. "It's good to have people come in and see what we really do and see what goes on here," Hesch said. Jeff Bannister came to see changes made at the plant since he worked there five years ago. "I heard that they put a lot of stuff in a small building," the Lockport machinist said. "It's probably more efficient." The "small building" contains a million square feet -- large enough that employees going from one end to another ride bicycles, said James Fennell, personnel director. The first -- and largest -- of the three buildings at the site opened in 1939 and is the only one still completely occupied, Fennell said. "We've learned how to get machines closer together, how to use less inventory, which ... ends up being less cost from an inventory standpoint and less square footage necessary to manufacture," he said. The Lockport facility makes the powertrain cooling portion of vehicles -- radiators, condensers, and heater and evaporator cores for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Everything but the evaporators now are produced in the same building, Fennell said. More than 6,000 of each are produced daily in Lockport. Displays at the plant feature several vehicles using its components, including a 2012 Chevrolet Sonic, a car not yet on dealers' lots, Fennell said. "Our employees ... can see where the parts they're building go," he said. The one robot in the plant moves a large diesel-application radiator to a welding station, Fennel said. "This application is for a turbo, and a lot of small engines are going to turbo applications, so we're going to be building more (radiators) like this, only smaller," Fennel said. He didn't know of any plans to expand the use of robots. The tour also offered the opportunity to drive the Chevrolet Volt, said Ralph Pawlak, of Williamsville, who came to the plant with his wife to see where their son works. "The tour itself was very informative," said Pawlak, who had worked at the GM Powertrain plant in the Town of Tonawanda. "I'm a retired GM guy. You can see the camaraderie that everyone's exhibiting today." [email protected] To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.buffalonews.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]