capttris Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 I will be in Lafayette, Indiana next week for a few days on business, and was able to make reservations for a factory tour of the Subaru Plant! Cell phones/cameras are not allowed, but I certainly have a lot of questions to ask. (if they are able and willing to answer them) Does anyone have any specific questions/curiosities that I can help to answer when I am there? The tour guide is probably fully scripted on what they talk about, but I certainly intend to ask lots of questions along the way. Has anyone else here taken the factory tour? Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orndog Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Interesting, let us know how it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellesedil Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Sure, I have a question. Ask them if it's possible to design a turbo-charged AWD family sedan. /halfkidding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KFCConspiracy Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Here's one: Can we have a new Legacy GT? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picky1 Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 What is the timeframe for the Tribeca replacement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Ned Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Sure, I have a question. Ask them if it's possible to design a turbo-charged AWD family sedan. /halfkidding Not kidding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellesedil Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Apologies for the slight derailment. However, on a related topic, I do have one question. When I ordered my Legacy GT in February of 2012, they (Subaru) hung on to my order for at least a month before beginning production. My understanding was that they were waiting for a few more GT orders to come in before making a batch of cars. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that Subaru was going to discontinue the LGT. I'm somewhat curious as to how involved it is to produce the same vehicle that is already being produced, but with different features/engines/trim. Is it a massive undertaking? Does it take days or weeks to change these details? What percentage of the assembly line needs to be changed over? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capttris Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 I took the factory tour this week: No photos allowed - cameras/phones need to stay in the car, so I only have a few photos of the outside of the plant. (You can see the same from google earth/street view, lol) Inside the visitor center they have a 1989 Legacy in mint condition, next to a 2015 Legacy. Also, the 2.5 engine fully built on a stand, that you can touch. I had my hands and eyes all over it! The tour was about 1.5 hours, but the girl giving the tour spent about 20-30 minutes on how they are 0% landfill and how they recycle everything, all while in the hallway of the visitor center. I'm all for recycling, but I could have found the same information on their website and/or that youtube video they have on this. Onto the tour: I did see pretty much the entire process and it was awesome. Rolls of raw steel come in (in various sizes), get inserted into machines that stamps out flat sections. These sections get stacked onto carts, that then get rolled over to a giant die press, and they get pressed into the various parts of the car body. (floor pan, roof, each side, fenders, small frame parts, etc) Then they get rolled down to a robotic area for welding (not on the tour due to the welding). We then went to paint, where they roll down an assembly line, hanging from hangers, like a ski lift. Each car gets dipped under a vat of primer , dried, sanded & sealed (that white flex-foam/glue stuff that you see in all of the welded seams), painted, sanded, then painted again with top coat Then comes undercarriage (suspension, drive axles) then engine and trans get dropped in. Then there is a long interior fit-out down a long assembly line. There are a ton of the small stations along the way, and everyone has an exact specific tank for the assembly. This was the most interesting part but the tour girl raced through it unfortunately. I tried to slow her down a few times with questions, but she didn't know the answer to 99% of my questions, (she said she worked there for only 6 months) Then we got to see the end of the line, where fuel is added and each car is driven off the assembly line to a series of quality checks, rain water test, brake test, etc, then driven outside to their massive parking lot where it waits to go into another building for accessories to be added and the white plastic to be applied, before it leaves the property. They didn't show the engine shop. They only build the 2.5 engine there. The CVT is from Japan. She didn't know where the 3.6 is built. Also, the engine shop was not on the tour. I thought the engines were built in Japan, and I asked how long the engine shop was building that engine. She didn't know... So other than an uninformed tour guide, the tour of the factory was very cool and a great experience. The Toyota Camry is also currently made there on a 3rd line (Legacy and Outback are line 1 and line 2). In 2016, the Toyota contract ends and they will be building the Imprezza on line 3. I also asked when they will switch over to build the 2016 models. She didn't know but said there is a 2 week shutdown in July and thinks that may be for the switchover Sorry I didn't get answers to any of your questions. She couldn't answer MOST of my basic questions... It was basically a self-guided tour, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellesedil Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Sorry I didn't get answers to any of your questions. She couldn't answer MOST of my basic questions... It was basically a self-guided tour, lol Was she cute, at least? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilgrin247 Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Apologies for the slight derailment. However, on a related topic, I do have one question. When I ordered my Legacy GT in February of 2012, they (Subaru) hung on to my order for at least a month before beginning production. My understanding was that they were waiting for a few more GT orders to come in before making a batch of cars. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that Subaru was going to discontinue the LGT. I'm somewhat curious as to how involved it is to produce the same vehicle that is already being produced, but with different features/engines/trim. Is it a massive undertaking? Does it take days or weeks to change these details? What percentage of the assembly line needs to be changed over? Mine took 11 weeks from when I ordered it (that includes the time SOA had it to install other options). But back to your question, I have a family member who works there and if I recall correctly they were only making 2 lgt's per day (hence being a limited production). They were being produced on the same line as every other car/wagon that they make there. Each car coming down the line has different options including color. The gt has the hoodscoop so during production the computer tells the operator which part is needed to be installed per the car vin. I think it takes a little more than a day for each car to begin on the line to when it rolls off complete (I could be wrong). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laz Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Was she cute, at least? I am betting YES! http://pzrservices.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451ccbc69e2016305dbc8e6970d-400wi : pedobear: --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capttris Posted June 16, 2015 Author Share Posted June 16, 2015 Actually she was young, probably early 20's. Very nice and friendly but unfortunately very green. She had only worked there for 6 months and really didn't know much more than what was on the "script". Still a very, very cool experience and I highly recommend it to anyone that can go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Msmoto Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Yesterday morning i had the pleasure of a tour of the plant...on a golf cart, one on one....and this is on the production floor, moving out of the way to let the remote vehicles pass with parts, close enough to where arm and eye protection are required, honking the horn at each intersection...fabulous. But, what impressed me most of all was the extensive quality control used in all areas of production. There is a lot of hands on inspection in each Legacy/Outback coming off the line. Each car goes through an extensive "road test" on a dyno, all system are checked. This might explain why my vehicle was delivered with no product defects...I mean Zero! Of course, it is a bit shocking to learn it only takes about three days from rolls of sheet steel to finished product....mmmm. Of note is Subaru's interest in not wasting anything. Even the floor sweepings are sold to a company which recovers metal and other recyclable materials. So, if you are headed to Lafayette, Indiana, contact Allie, allie.louthen@subaru-sia.com and schedule a tour. Unfortunately the golf cart tours are a bit difficult to schedule as they do this only on a limited basis, but the overall experience is a real blast. My sincere gratitude to the folks at SIA for allowing me in. Just nice people. Msmoto aka Ms Tommie Lauer Legacy 3.6R... Fast cars, motorcycles, trains, photography, travel...w/Airstream NIKON, K4MTL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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