Toyota Closes NUMMI Plant in California
The curtain closes this week on an iconic scene in American industrial history, when the last Tacoma truck and Toyota Corolla roll off the NUMMI assembly line in Fremont, California. Thus ends the last act of a drama in which 4,700 workers lost their jobs and the only major automotive factory west of the Rockies closed its doors.
The New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant, fondly referred to as NUMMI, opened in 1984 and continued for roughly 25 years. In that time it produced about 7.7 million cars and trucks at the massive 5.3 million sq.ft. complex.
In the beginning, NUMMI was hailed as a bold experiment, in which a unionized American manufacturing force melded with Japanese management. NUMMI was a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota, which skeptics dismissed as strange bedfellows. 
But the relationship turned out to benefit both. Toyota got a “Made in USA” gloss to its products and GM got Japanese manufacturing expertise. The UAW workers were introduced to “kaizan,” the Japanese concept of continuous improvement. The NUMMI marriage lasted amicably for a quarter century of production. But when GM hit the skids last year and pulled out of their venture, Toyota just couldn’t hold on to NUMMI alone.
Despite months of warning and generous severance packages, the union workers express disappointment and devastation. A pall of disbelief hangs in the Bay Area air. A remarkable number of employees are quoted as saying that the atmosphere at the plant was like a family. Many express personal and professional pride in the factory’s well-known record for quality. While Toyota, like every car manufacturer, is occasionally plagued with design defects, NUMMI had a reputation for rarely letting a mechanical defect roll out the door.
The NUMMI plant was often referred to as a “great American success story.” That hopeful phrase now rings as hollow as an echo through NUMMI’s cavernous and empty assembly halls. For more information click here
