How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

[Steven S.]

Maybe this is a silly question, but how did any particular years assembly instruction manual directly apply to how the vehicles were built? Was it the only reference used during assembly? Did the line workers have copies of the sections that applied to their particular jobs?

Thanks,
Steve

[Gene M.]

Re: How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

Steve,
The AIM is an engineering drawing of the current design intent. The assembly line workers in many industries were instructed to use "process sheets" an instructions guide put together by assembly line engineers. This may or may not be the process GM used. But many industries interpret the engineering documents to custom tailor the assembly to each assembly work station. Maybe John Hinkley can chime in to explain the actual process GM used.

[John H.]

Re: How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

Steve,
The AIM is an engineering drawing of the current design intent. The assembly line workers in many industries were instructed to use "process sheets" an instructions guide put together by assembly line engineers. This may or may not be the process GM used. But many industries interpret the engineering documents to custom tailor the assembly to each assembly work station. Maybe John Hinkley can chime in to explain the actual process GM used.

Steve -

This question used to come up quite frequently, so I wrote an article that explains everything that folks generally ask about the Assembly Manual - the link below will take you to the article, on our CRG (Camaro Researsch Group) website:

http://www.camaros.org/AIM.shtml

[Stephen L.]

Re: How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

John,

Great explanation!!!!!

[Steven S.]

Re: How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

Perfect! Thank you.

Steve

[Alan S.]

Re: How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

Hi John,
Thanks very much for the link and your effort to produce the article!
Regards,
Alan

[John L.]

[Larry E.]

Re: How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

Maybe this is a silly question, but how did any particular years assembly instruction manual directly apply to how the vehicles were built? Was it the only reference used during assembly? Did the line workers have copies of the sections that applied to their particular jobs?

Thanks,
Steve

FWIW: When I took a tour of the Chevy Janesville WI plant (Now Closed) several years ago I noticed that "single" pages of the AIM where scotched taped to the doors or other places of the vehicle. (Tahoe/Surburbans) The pages where different for the different timing of the perticular assemby. So they where pulled on/off as the vehicle went down the line. Larry

[John H.]

Re: How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

FWIW: When I took a tour of the Chevy Janesville WI plant (Now Closed) several years ago I noticed that "single" pages of the AIM where scotched taped to the doors or other places of the vehicle. (Tahoe/Surburbans) The pages where different for the different timing of the perticular assemby. So they where pulled on/off as the vehicle went down the line. Larry

Larry -

Those must have been pre-production or "probe" units, which sometimes used additional A.I.M. documentation on the first unit through the system to assist line operators with the new parts - it was NOT a normal production process.

[John D.]

Re: How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

Back when I started in a GM assembly plant in 85 they were called PAD (product assembly document) sheets. There was a guy in the Quality Dept. whose full time job was updating the master plant sheets after each and every change either in process specification or part. He would then have to update the books in Industrial Engineering and each affected department. Ir seemed like the copy machine ran endlessly...

Later on they were available online

[Chuck S.]

Re: How were the assembly instruction manuals used during production?

John;
Thanks for the informative link and once again sharing your knowledge with us.
Regards,
CS