Take advantage of this unique opportunity to observe award-winning automotive assembly in action!

Tour Description: Take advantage of this unique opportunity to observe award-winning automotive assembly in action! Your guided tour will give you the chance to witness our impressive facility and see Subaru vehicle production from start to finish. Tours of SIA highlight the Stamping processes, where you will observe giant presses turning raw coils of steel into the vehicle's metal structure. From there, you will see these panels expertly welded together by over 1,671 robots in our Body Assembly area. Following the Paint Shop, you will see Associates bring the vehicles to life as they assemble over 2,000 parts into and onto each vehicle in Trim and Final. Finally, viewing our Tester Line will prove our commitment to quality and safety. Ultimately, you will see what makes a Subaru a Subaru.

What participants will see on the tour:

• Stamping: Steel and aluminum pieces get stamped into actual car parts using huge Transfer Presses.
• Body Construction: Watch those pieces get welded together using 1,671 robots.
• Paint: Watch a short paint video of the entire paint process and see it through windows.
• Trim & Final: Final assembly where 2,000 parts are getting put on the Subaru, watching it driving off the final line, and all points of the quality inspection.

Additional Tour Details:

• Closed-toe and closed-heel shoes are required to be worn.
• Skirts, dresses, and sandals are not permitted to be worn. Shorts are permitted in the hotter months.
• There are lockers in the Lobby for you to store your purses, bags, jackets, etc. as those items are not to be worn or carried on the tour.
• Please bring your Government issued ID

Want to learn more from Subaru? Check out Friday’s 9 a.m. general session: Driving the Future at Subaru Through Continuous Improvement and Education

Allison Transmission is the world’s largest manufacturer of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and is a leader in hybrid-propulsion systems for city buses. Allison transmissions are used in a variety of applications, including refuse, construction, fire, distribution, bus, motorhomes, defense and energy. Founded in 1915, the company is headquartered in Indianapolis and has a market presence in more than 80 countries.

What participants will see on the tour: Allison Transmission will be offering tours of the three commercial plants that produce on-road transmissions, with a high percentage of components manufactured in-house. The plants are cellular based, with slightly more than 40 cells per plant. The company is working hard to deploy its operational excellence system more deeply. Each plant is instituting model cells to make step-change improvements to its 5S and TPM status.  The plan is for all cells to achieve this level by the end of 2025. Allison has been growing very rapidly, and you will see many new, recently installed machines to accommodate the increased volumes. Additionally, the entire assembly process for one product family is on a monorail.

Many lean concepts are in use, including:

• One-piece flow
• Kanban
• Kitting
• Supermarkets
• Point of use inventory
• Visual management  

Additional Tour Details:

• Visitor form must be completed
• Steel or composite toe, slip resistant shoes are required
• Photo ID is required

Tour Description: See how the process of flowmeter assembly begins with the materials we use. Quality control and our sourcing quality policy ensure that we only use ethically sourced materials. Our inbound freight team receives, inspects, and places into stock materials used in the production of flowmeters. Throughout the assembly process, quality control measures are upheld to ensure the efficiency and quality of our process.

The process and workflow efficiencies we’ve created mean low lead times for our customers. Every step of the way, our internal order tracking process ensures operators quickly select and expertly utilize the correct materials. Our operators are trained to assemble the full range of flowmeters produced by Endress+Hauser–creating efficiency and cost savings for our customers. 

Color coding and visual cues help our team save time and pull materials accurately for each kit–ensuring only the necessary parts are selected and travel together throughout assembly, testing, and calibration. Team members working are ESD certified to ensure the integrity of the circuit boards installed in each meter.

As the People for Process Automation, we leverage cutting edge robotics technology to support our operators. You’ll see how our kit delivery robot–Flow Bot–helps our operators work more efficiently by delivering kits to them, allowing them to focus their attention on the assembly process. Flow Bot allows our facility to leverage a single kitting area for both assembly points in our facility, creating efficiency and lowering costs.

Once flowmeters are assembled and quality tested, they are calibrated, which is driven by our innovation and design. You’ll see the largest holding tank used for calibrations at our facility holds 155,000 gallons of water! The water used for calibration must be periodically flushed from the system and new water added.  During this change, water is released into a retention pond for geothermal heating and cooling, reducing our carbon footprint. Furthermore, our location includes solar panels across the entire roof of the facility to cut our carbon footprint by a projected 53%.

Additional Tour Details:

• Closed-toe required to be worn
• Safety glasses will be provided

Want to learn more from Endress + Hauser USA? Check out Thursday’s 10:10 a.m. general session: Growing Your Own Talent: Investing in the Pipeline of Tomorrow