Lansing, MI: GM

Thursday, January 17th

Again we woke up very early and boarded our bus to head out to Lansing, MI to visit GM’s Lansing Delta Township facility (LDT). The LDT is GM’s newest facility in the US and one of our classmates had spent the last couple years of his professional career trying to get the facility up and running. It is an amazing facility in that it is the only automotive facility that is “Leadership in Energy and Environment Design” (LEED) certified and that the union takes on an active role in the facility by co-running the facility. Every hour of training that was offered to the LDT employees was given by a salaried individual as well as a union official. This commitment even ran into our visit as all the presentations were co-run as well as all the tours were co-led with salary and hourly personnel. The facility was also amazing as it was our classes first visit to a high volume, high mix (the LDT can build three different types of cars one after the other) facility. Also it is always exciting to see an entire car put together from scratch. I can still remember my tour of Ford’s Wixom Plant back in 2000 to see the Lincoln’s and the retro Thunderbird being put together.

We also had our first casualties of the trip. Two classmates (who happened to be roommates) did not receive their wake-up call and were not accounted for on the bus due to the addition and subtraction of individuals on every leg of the trip. After waking up at 9:30 (instead of 5 am) they were brought to the facility via a cab that the hotel arranged for them. Talk about good customer service (I don’t know what a two hour cab ride costs these days, but I’m not anxious to find out!).

That evening we were left on our own to find dinner. I rented a car and took the chance to treat a couple of classmates to some of the best burgers in the US as rated by GQ magazine - Miller’s Bar in Dearborn ranked number 8 out of 20. A low-key establishment with only a handful of items on its non-existent menu, Miller’s is fabulous. My group definitely thought so as one individual managed to put away three burgers, four shells (beers) and an order of fries – very impressive for a first-timer. If you are in Southeast Michigan, a trip to Miller’s would definitely be in order.