Ford River Rouge and GM Pontiac Stamping

This morning we visited the Ford River Rouge factory, the historic factory where the assembly line for automobiles was started.  The River Rouge factory produces 1,000 F-150 trucks every weekday (600 on the weekends).  They have incorporated many technological advances to improve worker safety and health by using robots and other mechanical devices.  We learned the history of the Fordplant, from the beginning of when Henry Ford founded the company to how they develop cars today.

In the afternoon, we visited the GM Pontiac Stamping Plant.  Here we were able to discuss auto manufacturing issues with the health and safety staff of the facility.  We walked through the plant, seeing how the steel is stamped to create the fenders, roof, and other parts of the cars.

Carrie Furnaces and NIOSH PPTL - Pittsburgh, PA

Today we visited Carrie Furnace at the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area in Pittsburgh.  Jim, our tour guide, worked at the furnace from 1964 to 1982.  He had many stories about the work they conducted, some of the personalities he worked with, and how they conducted the work they performed.  We had an opportunity to get up close to the blast furnace used and see how the whole operation works.

In the afternoon, we met at the NIOSH Personal Protective Technologies Lab.  Amazing research on personal protective equipment is being conducted.  As one of the researchers said, they want to create better standards,  so that workers are better protected.