Toyota's West Virginia Engine Plant Wins Harbour Award For Most Productive Engine Plant

Toyota's Engine Plant wins Productivity Award: 1.88 hours to build an engine

"Sophisticated" engines with overhead cams & variable valve timing are more expensive to manufacture, right? Well, Toyota just issued a press release that its 4 cylinder engine plant in West Virginia won a productivity award, beating its own record for engine assembly time. For only the second time, an engine plant came in at under 2.0 hours. Toyota's 3.3 liter V-6 has a 3 hour assembly time.

Consider this: General Motors builds most of its midsize V-6 engines in China. Since General Motors has to co-ordinate the deliveries of parts half a world away, then ship the engine in long-distance transport container to the USA, is it really saving money over (properly managed) U.S. production?