We got lucky! We called our friend Miguel Soetaert, Group Leader Component Optimization for Detroit Diesel and asked if we could stop by for a visit at his Detroit Diesel office. He was able to secure us a plant tour with Pam Esshaki, Assembly Quality Coordinator - Plant Tours as a last minute request. I was thrilled that a women would be giving us our tour and as soon as she realized I wasn't your typical girly girl she stepped up the tour and we had a blast! She had more knowledge in her little finger about the history of the motors, what has changed over the years, and how everything inside the plant works then most people would learn in a life time. She started us at the point where the block meets with a robotic cart that it will stay with through out the assembly. Just watching how the carts work was pretty interesting and I had lots of questions on what drives what motor needs to be produced. The customer has spoken and now the motors are made on demand to mesh with the truck frame that is also being made. No more waiting till one type of motor is finished being produced then everything retooled to create another motor. Now with the robotics you can have any type of motor in the line and each motor has its own micro chip that will tell the robot what needs to be done. We met with several of the people working on the line and watched them interacting with the motors and it sure was not what I pictured a assembly line work to look like. These people all had lots of experience and lots of accountability as what they did was also encoded on the micro chip and if any part was to fail they can trace it as far down as to who installed the part and where the part was manufactured. It was interesting the accountability was drilled down so far into the manufacturing and when something goes wrong there is recourse so that you are able to execute the change that needs to be made. Each day at the end of a shift there is a group meeting on what went right, what went wrong and what is going to be done for corrections and when the corrections would be made. There is no slacking in this place or slackers allowed.
Pam explained many new innovations to the engine including what has been done to make the engine quiet. I called it waffling that had been incorporated into the block and also other pieces but the technical term is webbing and this has strengthened the block and also is used as a noise reducer. Pam also took us back to the testing rooms and even though there is no way I would have the patience to work in the testing area it was awesome. Pam had some funny stories of experiences that have happened during testing. One thing about this area is it has many chambers with a lot going on in each one. The motors run behind very thick glass as some of the procedures they go through could cause them to throw a rod or something else just as fun!
We also watched the area where the robots did all of the precision machine work and it was interesting that they do the drilling dry. They found that the water used to cool the tool bit was actually contaminating the metal so now they use high pressure air.
We hope to go back as we were really on overload through the whole tour with all the information Pam had and with what we were seeing. Pam also shared with us her background at the plant and that she has been there 30 years. As most of us women could guess her climb has not been an easy one. The neatest part about Pam is there is no doubt she is a women and that while working and raising a family she was able to obtain her masters degree in mechanical engineering. Between her and Miguel we have learned a lot about how the DD motors are manufactured and we have a great resource to ask many questions of in the future as we progress to purchasing our own Cascadia with the DD13 motor.
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