Can man and (dog) robot work together? At Hyundai plant, they already do.

Credit: Justin Taylor for The Current GA

Credit: Justin Taylor for The Current GA

The Hyundai Metaplant is among the most technologically advanced auto factories in the world. More than 1,000 robots of differing shapes and sizes do everything from weld, paint, stamp, manhandle and inspect auto bodies in the assembly plant while hundreds of sledlike “autonomous guided vehicles” move autos, parts and other materials around the factory floor.

Yet for all the automation Hyundai’s approach is “human centered,” according to Metaplant Chief Administrative Officer Brett Stubbs. More than 1,700 flesh-and-blood employees work alongside the robots in what the South Korean automaker considers a test bed for the automated factory of tomorrow — for the company, the auto industry and manufacturing broadly.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Hyundai largely utilizes technology to handle what general assembly department head Jerald Roach calls the “low-hanging fruit” of manufacturing. Those include tasks that would cause physical strain on employees, such as heavy lifting or repetitive actions. Hyundai officials do not envision a day when the Metaplant becomes a so-called “dark factory” where robots handle every element of manufacturing.

“We didn’t build this place for that purpose at all, and I think that’s like a sci-fi fantasy in a lot of ways,” Stubbs said. “I think we’re going to discover that human work can be elevated, human work can be improved, and human well-being can be supported through this technology.”

Plans call for the hiring of another 1,000-plus assembly workers — part of an eventual campuswide workforce of 8,500 that includes staffers at an EV battery plant and five suppliers — in the coming years as the factory adds work shifts and moves to 24-hour production. Hyundai will also need more workers as it expands assembly capabilities to include hybrid vehicles and possibly even humanoid, AI-enabled robots known as Atlas that will perform repetitive tasks in Hyundai factories around the globe.

Train like you work

Conditioning employees to work in such an advanced technology environment that bears little resemblance to the assembly lines of yesteryear is a key to efficiency and success. That challenge is being tackled at Hyundai’s on-campus training center, a 90,000-square-foot facility that opened last November and is known as the Hyundai Mobility Training Center of Georgia.

“The workforce here in Georgia is very adaptable, very hard-working, just great,” Hyundai’s Roach said. “But very few have experience in the auto industry, and that’s where the Quick Start program comes in.”

Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgia Quick Start

Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgia Quick Start

The training center’s many labs are scale versions of the production areas next door. The showpiece is the general assembly high bay, where EV mock-ups known as Quick Start cars move around on robotic sleds. Trainees install steering wheels, air bags, wiring harnesses, brake lines, trim and other parts, working a 40-hour practice week on the training center line before moving to the factory.

That work happens after the new hires master fundamental skills that range from parts identification to tool use.

Elsewhere in the Quick Start facility trainees learn how to work in Hyundai’s paint shop and welding departments, how to program and collaborate with robots and other automated tools, and how to perform maintenance on equipment.

There’s also a quality control station, where they get used to Spot. In the factory, the robot inspects weld joints and looks for other manufacturing defects while also collecting data on the products.

Fred Smalls, a training center graduate now working in the factory, said the Quick Start program “brought out the confidence” in him.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Hyundai

Credit: Photo courtesy of Hyundai

The training center aims to reset the manufacturing onboarding process. Typically, manufacturers train via the buddy system, pairing a trainee with a trainer to work on the assembly line until the new hire becomes comfortable and proficient at the tasks.

The method hurts productivity, requiring two employees to do the work of one. Often, the line operates at a slower pace when a new hire is introduced. But not at the Metaplant.

Thanks to Quick Start, most of the factory-floor training involves specialized tasks, Roach said.

“They know how to use the tools, identify the parts and their way around the processes,” he said. “They come up to speed quickly.”

Quick Start: Georgia’s ‘secret weapon’ for economic development

The Hyundai Mobility Training Center of Georgia is the latest Quick Start project. The program dates to 1967 and has partnered with dozens of manufacturers over the decades. Those include Pratt & Whitney in Columbus, where the company has been building aircraft engines since 1984; and more recently Qcells, the solar panel maker with manufacturing facilities in Dalton and Cartersville; and Rinnai America, which manufactures water heaters in Griffin.

The state is investing $21.5 million in taxpayer funds in Quick Start and its seven training centers this year. Georgia is one of three states in the Southeast to offer a direct workforce training program, along with Virginia and Louisiana, and Quick Start is cited as a deal sealer in instances where manufacturers are deciding between Georgia and neighboring states that only offer workforce training grants.

“Gov. (Brian) Kemp calls us his ‘secret weapon,’” Williams said.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Construction and operation of the Hyundai Mobility Training Center of Georgia was part of the $2.1 billion incentive package Georgia used to land the automaker’s EV plant. Quick Start staff, including Williams, launched the project even before the deal was announced, visiting South Korea for a 10-day research trip.

They spent time in each of Hyundai’s plants in the automaker’s home country, studying the assembly process and identifying gaps in the training processes Quick Start uses for other manufacturers, including Hyundai’s sister company, Kia. The automaker has been building cars in West Point since 2009.

Complicating the planning was Hyundai’s intention to make the Georgia plant its most innovative in the world. The automaker and workforce training organization have been tweaking and expanding their processes from the start. One example is the training center’s step line, where trainees are conditioned to work while standing on a slow-moving conveyor belt. On Hyundai’s unorthodox assembly line, the cars and workers move together — the autos on the automated sleds and the workers on the conveyor belt.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgia Quick Start

Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgia Quick Start

Many newly minted training center graduates became disoriented, even dizzy, when first introduced to working on the conveyor belt in the factory. Quick Start moved fast to incorporate that experience into its training.

“The idea is this is as much of a true work environment as they will experience in the plant,” Williams said. “We like to say you see good stuff next door. Over here is the great stuff.”