CAMI Assembly (formerly CAMI Automotive) is an

assembly plant A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

wholly owned by

General Motors Canada General Motors of Canada Company (french: La Compagnie General Motors du Canada), commonly known as GM Canada, is the Canadian subsidiary of US-based company General Motors. It is headquartered in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. In the aftermath of the ...

. The plant occupies and has of

floor A floor is the bottom surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many layered surfaces made with modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal or any other material that can support the expected load ...

space of which was added in 2016 as part of a $560 million investment. CAMI uses the CAMI Production System (CPS), a set of operating philosophies that guide team members in manufacturing vehicles. The basis of the system is working in teams performing

standardized Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...

work. This is based on the Japanese production system, which is built on a team concept.

Recent developments

CAMI was an independently incorporated

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

manufacturing in

Ingersoll, Ontario Ingersoll is a town in Oxford County on the Thames River in southwestern Ontario, Canada. The nearest cities are Woodstock to the east and London to the west. Ingersoll is situated north of and along Highway 401. Oxford County Road 119 (formerl ...

, Canada and formed the third step of

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

' three-pronged initiative of the mid-1980s to capture and practice the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese mystique of automotive management. The other two were

United Australian Automobile Industries United Australian Automobile Industries (UAAI) was an automobile model sharing firm that operated in Australia between 1987 and 1996 as the result of an agreement between Holden (the Australian subsidiary of General Motors) and Toyota Australia. ...

between

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

and

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thre ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and

NUMMI New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was an American automobile manufacturing company in Fremont, California, jointly owned by General Motors and Toyota that opened in 1984 and closed in 2010. After the plant was closed by its owners, th ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

with

and GM, the latter a wholly owned alternative to apply its learnings into practice. CAMI was the least successful of the trio for decades, but is now the sole survivor. Production began in late 1989 after several delays. To circumvent the American 25 percent "

Chicken tax The Chicken Tax is a 25 percent tariff on light trucks (and originally on potato starch, dextrin, and brandy) imposed in 1964 by the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson in response to tariffs placed by France and West Germany on impor ...

", the entire Canadian production of

Geo Tracker The Chevrolet Tracker, formerly the Geo Tracker, is a mini SUV produced for Chevrolet and Geo by CAMI Automotive in Ingersoll, Ontario. Although appearing as a compact SUV, the Tracker was actually certified as a light truck due to its off-road ...

s was initially shipped to the United States. The Canadian market, not afflicted by a similar tariff, was supplied directly from Japan. CAMI sticker

In November 2009, GM announced to invest US$85 million investment at the plant, raising production by 40,000 vehicles to 240,000 by adding a third shift, resulting in the recall of about 150 laid-off autoworkers in preparation of the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain. Until December 2009, ownership of CAMI was split 50-50% between

Suzuki is a Japan, Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs ...

and General Motors of Canada Ltd. The former withdrew from the venture after it stopped production of its XL7 models at CAMI in June 2009 due to poor sales. In December, 2010, contrary to conditions set out by Canadian federal and Ontario provincial governments, GM laid off approximately 90 salaried staff as a result of its takeover of the CAMI Assembly plant. From 2013 the plant has produced vehicles based on GM's ''

Theta Theta (, ; uppercase: Θ or ; lowercase: θ or ; grc, ''thē̂ta'' ; Modern: ''thī́ta'' ) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 9. Gr ...

'' platform for

crossover SUV A crossover, crossover SUV, or crossover utility vehicle (CUV) is a type of automobile with an increased ride height that is built on unibody chassis construction shared with passenger cars, as opposed to traditional sport utility vehicles (S ...

s; production of the second generation

Chevrolet Equinox The Chevrolet Equinox is a series of crossover SUVs from Chevrolet introduced in 2004 for the 2005 model year. It replaces the North American Chevrolet Tracker and Chevrolet S-10 Blazer. The third-generation Equinox also replaced the first-ge ...

for fleet sales continued even as production of the third generation model started on 8 January 2017. In 2013 GM announced a US$200 million (C$250 million) investment for a new body shop and flexible manufacturing equipment and tooling to support future production. In early 2015, GM announced to invest US$450 million (C$560 million) in the plant in preparation for production of the next generation Chevrolet Equinox. The amount included C$190 million at the plant and C$370 million in vendor tooling with suppliers. In January 2017, GM announced it would cut 625 workers as a result of shifting production of the second generation

GMC Terrain The GMC Terrain is a crossover SUV by American manufacturer General Motors under its GMC marque. Sharing its platform with the Chevrolet Equinox, the first-generation Terrain was built on GM's Theta platform, while the second-generation model ...

to Mexico and phasing out the second generation Chevrolet Equinox earlier than planned. CAMI Automotive has 2,800 hourly and 300 salaried employees in early 2017 before the layoff. CAMI also supplied unfinished bodies of Chevrolet Equinox to GM's

Oshawa Car Assembly Oshawa Assembly (also known simply as ''GM Oshawa'') is a manufacturing facility in the city of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, that built various automobiles for General Motors Canada. Vehicles were primarily produced for the US, Canadian, and Mexica ...

for painting and final assembly. The arrangement ended after the production of the second generation Chevrolet Equinox ceased in 2017. In response to the Terrain's shifting and due to the production of the Equinox in two plants in Mexico, workers went on a strike demanding CAMI become the main assembly point of the Equinox. The strike ended in October 16, 2017.

Awards and highlights

*In the 2005 Harbour Report, CAMI was ranked No. 3 in

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

in the Small

SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

category of the 45 auto assembly plants in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. *Recognized as the most efficient plant in North America four years in a row (2012,2013,2014, and 2015) *J.D. Power Silver Plant Award for the Americas – June 2014 *Landfill Free status achieved in January 2014 *Clean50 - 'Leaders in Sustainability' Top 15 Project winner - September 2015 *Best GMNA Plant in Wiring Warranty Performance – February 2014

Current product

In 2021, GM announced CAMI Assembly would transition to the

BrightDrop BrightDrop is a subsidiary business created by the American manufacturer General Motors in 2021. The business offers a system of connected products targeting first- and last-mile delivery customers, including light commercial electric vehicles, ...

platform (starting in May 2022) to become General Motors Canada's first commercial EV manufacturing plant. Announced initial buyers include FedEx and Walmart. The plant will begin to produce the

BrightDrop Zevo The BrightDrop Zevo is a battery electric delivery van produced by General Motors for its electric commercial vehicle marque BrightDrop. It was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show on 12 January 2021. There are two models, the larger Zevo 6 ...

600 in December 2022 and the Zevo 400 in 2023. As scheduled, the first BrightDrop vehicles were produced in early December 2022, with a grand opening event attended by various dignitaries. GM also announced package delivery service

DHL Express DHL is an American founded, German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, which is a division of the German logistics firm Deutsche Post. The company group delivers over 1.8 billion parcels per year. DHL ...

Canada as its first international EV customer.

Former products

The

was produced from 2004 to April 29, 2022. The plant went through retooling following the end of the Equinox to prepare for its next product, the electric van Zevo 600. The

was produced until the middle of 2017 when production of the all-new 2018

was transferred to San Luis Potosi Assembly.

Historical timeline

*1986 - CAMI Automotive established *1989 - Production of J1 (and

), M2 (

Geo Metro The Geo Metro is a marketing and manufacturing variation of the Suzuki Cultus available in North America from 1989 through 2001 as a joint effort of General Motors (GM) and Suzuki. In the US, the Metro carried a Geo nameplate from 1989 through ...

) begins - 6,760 vehicles were built in calendar year 1989. *1990 -

Suzuki Sidekick The Suzuki Vitara is a series of SUVs produced by Suzuki in five generations since 1988. The second, third-generation and 2022 models are known as the Suzuki Grand Vitara, with the fourth generation eschewing the "Grand" prefix. In Japan and a ...

production added. *1993 - Total CAMI production reaches 500,000. *1994 - Production of M3 (Geo Metro and Pontiac Firefly) begins. *1996 - Total CAMI production reaches 1.5

million One million (1,000,000), or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian ''millione'' (''milione'' in modern Italian), from ''mille'', "thousand", plus the au ...

vehicles. *1998 - Production of J2 (

Suzuki Vitara The Suzuki Vitara is a series of SUVs produced by Suzuki in five generations since 1988. The second, third-generation and 2022 models are known as the Suzuki Grand Vitara, with the fourth generation eschewing the "Grand" prefix. In Japan and a ...

and

) begins and CAMI receives

ISO 9002 ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

registration for its Quality Management System. *2000 - CAMI receives

ISO 14001 ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations (processes, etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land); (b ...

registration for its Environmental Management System. *2003 - Total CAMI production reaches 11.5 million vehicles. *2004 - Production of

begins. *2005 - Production of

Pontiac Torrent The Pontiac Torrent is a mid-size crossover SUV produced by General Motors for the 2006 to 2009 model years. A replacement for the Aztek, it was a mildly restyled version of the first-generation Chevrolet Equinox. The Torrent shared its basic b ...

begins. *2006 - Production of Suzuki XL7 begins. *2009 - Production of Suzuki XL7 put on indefinite hold. *2009 - Production of

begins. *2009 - Suzuki withdraws from venture; gives General Motors full control. *2016 - Plant expansion *2017 - Production start of third generation Equinox; production of sister second generation Terrain moved to Mexico; in response of the Terrain's moving to Mexico, workers go on a strike demanding CAMI to become the main assembly point of the Equinox in order to prevent more shiftings to Mexico. *2022 - Production of the

ended April 29, 2022 *2022 - Plant retools *2022 - Production of the

BrightDrop Zevo 600 The BrightDrop Zevo is a battery electric delivery van produced by General Motors for its electric commercial vehicle marque BrightDrop. It was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show on 12 January 2021. There are two models, the larger Zevo 6 ...

begins December 2022.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cami Automotive Car manufacturers of Canada General Motors factories Ingersoll, Ontario Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies 1986 establishments in Ontario Motor vehicle assembly plants in Canada