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Mercedes-Benz M-Class Assembly Plant, Phase One
How can thousands of employees working in four separate units of a large and complex industrial building all feel they are essential members of the same team? That was the challenge Kahn architects faced as they designed the massive Mercedes assembly plant in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Kahn’s solution was to ensure that employees could actually see how their phase of the work fit into the entire production process. How did it do that? By laying out the four phases of work in the plant – body production, painting, assembly, and administration – with clear sight lines from one phase to the next. Team members working on an aspect of body production can see those parts travel by overhead conveyer directly into the paint shop – and they can also see them emerge from the paint shop into assembly. This isn’t possible in most automotive plants, where each phase of production is typically housed in its own isolated domain, separated by walls or with long distances between them. more...
The greatest challenge was incorporating the administrative offices into this design system. In the typical auto plant, office workers generally feel far removed from the factory floor. In Tuscaloosa County, however, Kahn designers placed the final assembly line right next to the offices, with only sound-proof windows dividing the spaces. Throughout the workday, Mercedes team members who sit behind desks are reminded what their work leads to – the production of an elegant vehicle. “They see that painted body come out of the paint shop,” says Ken Chevrier, RA, a Kahn senior associate and lead development architect on the project, “and they say, ‘Wow, that’s a nice-looking vehicle. And I’m part of that.’”
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