Or is it defense? Either way, U.S. automakers are scrambling to shore up their product and assembly lines. Whether it's vehicle development or vehicle facility development, "doing more with less" is the calling card. That's why GM is cutting up to 30,000 jobs and closing 12 facilities in North America over the next three years.

GM and Good News Not Mutually Exclusive    Here are a few plant investments that General Motors has announced in 2005:    • Shreveport, La., will see another $20-million investment to increase production of the Hummer H3 SUV. To prepare, the plant will add a third shift to its paint department in early 2006.    • Wentzville, Mo., will see a $30-million investment, announced in August, that involves the upgrading of two stamping presses. The plant was recognized by the 2004 Harbour Report as the most productive full-size van facility in North America.    • Officials in Fort Wayne, Ind., are considering a proposal by GM to expand its truck plant by 280,000 sq. ft. (26,012 sq. m.), adding 180 jobs to a payroll of 2,900.    • Cifunsa Plant in Saltillo, Coahuila, will invest $20 million to produce eight-cylinder engine blocks for the GM plant in Silao.

   But one of the plants shutting down — the Lansing, Mich., Craft Centre — is already on the short list of a niche assembly company, American Specialty Cars (ASC). One of the facility's primary features is its uniquely low-volume-output design, which has been ideal for ASC's ongoing work for the Chevrolet SSR made at the facility with more than 90-percent ASC content. Like Karmann USA and Canada-based Magna International, ASC is looking at niche full-vehicle assembly, and stated in October that it was surveying the field for possible sites, including Mexico.
   "With the continued 'nichification' of the North American automotive market, there is a growing need for efficient, low-volume assembly operations capable of producing complete vehicles in volumes of as low as 5,000 to 10,000 units per year," said ASC president and chief executive officer Paul Wilbur. "Our vision is to create a highly flexible, low-volume assembly operation with a total capacity of approximately 50,000 vehicles per year and capable of producing three to five different specialty vehicle models at once, for various automakers."
   Wilbur touted ASC's "humanation" production system in working with the SSR, a system that "stresses human ingenuity and low-investment tooling over costly robots, conveyor systems and other high tech. Exhibit "A" is ASC's own Lansing plant, which uses just six robots and carts powered by 12-volt batteries rather than conveyor systems.
   Based in Southgate, Mich., the company employs about 1,000 "car nuts" at 10 U.S. facilities. Tim Yost, director of marketing and communications for ASC, tells Site Selection a half-dozen states and provinces are in the mix, including Alabama and Ontario. He says that the Lansing Craft Centre "might be in contention too."

   What are ASC's chief criteria?
   "First, a facility that's sized correctly for our low-volume — and really, quite unique — business model," says Yost. "A plant sized to produce only around 50,000 units per year, versus a typical North American assembly plant producing 200,000 to 250,000 units per year. In total, we're talking about a plant footprint in the range of 450,000 to 500,000 square feet [up to 46,450 sq. m.], probably employing up to 500 people, and up to 800 if there are two shifts.
   "Second, the plant needs to be highly, highly flexible," he says.

ASC Global's new design studio in Huntington Beach, Calif., is largely there to serve the other 15 or so automotive design studios in the L.A. area. But the company is now conducting a site search for full assembly of niche vehicles at low volumes — the major OEMs' flexibility mantra in microcosm.

"Nothing quite like that has ever been done in North America. Finally, the economics, of course, have to work all the way around, from the work rules on the shop floor to whatever incentives local government might bring to the table in exchange for the jobs and economic activity we hope to create."
   Asked how "humanation" affects site selection, Yost says the concept has a huge influence.
   "ASC prides itself on employing people who have a positive, 'can-do' attitude," he says. "Plus we have a pretty unique 'car nut' culture on top of that. In fact, we even give out a big 'nut' trophy each quarter to the employee who has the coolest souped-up car. So it goes without saying that we'd like to locate our plant ... in a locale friendly to that general way of thinking."
   That characterization certainly brings California to mind. And though it hasn't yet been mentioned on the short list, that state was the most recent beneficiary of an ASC facility, a design and technical center that opened in Huntington Beach in February 2005.
   "In some ways, ASC is 'coming home,'" said Wilbur at the opening, "in that on Los Angeles' West Pico Blvd. is where ASC's founder, the late Heinz Prechter, first got his start cutting holes in the roofs of cars and installing sunroofs in 1965." That's when ASC stood for "American Sunroof Company."
   But the strategy behind that facility was primarily service to the cluster of some 15 other OEM design studios in the area, not as a precursor to other ASC operations.
   Interviewed last year by Site Selection, ASC competitor Tim Olind of Karmann USA noted the distinct advantage of putting manufacturing literally across the street from a technical center. Asked if the same sort of scenario might give extra weight to ASC's engineering centers in Auburn Hills, Southgate and Warren, Mich., Yost says, "That could be a factor, but not necessarily a deal-breaker one way or the other," though transport costs are certainly on the criteria sheet. So is proximity to ASC's more than 1,200 suppliers.
   Magna too is said to be on the hunt for a North American assembly site. But Yost is careful to point out differences in strategy between the companies.
   "Magna has described their model in the press as 'peak shaving' — using a possible Magna facility as a sort of safety valve if a mainstream OEM vehicle gets hot and that OEM suddenly needs additional production," he says. "ASC's business model, on the other hand, is all about specialty vehicles."