Students in Niagara University’s Holzschuh College of Business Administration observed multiple industrial processes to better understand fundamental concepts in operations management during a tour of the General Motors plant in Lockport, N.Y., on March 26, 2024.
Accompanied by their professor, Dr. Fernando Naranjo, the students met with Jodi West, regional HR/LR site director, and Tammy Tiutiunnyk, GM Lockport GSC enterprise systems lead, and were able to observe the flow of materials moving through several stations and being transformed using manual labor and automation. They also saw automated guided vehicles, boards for production control, tools used for preventive and corrective maintenance, and inventories around the facility.
“This was the first time some of our students had visited a factory, which proved an extremely interesting, valuable, and satisfying experience for them,” said Dr. Naranjo.
The students were surprised and impressed by the size of the 2.6-million-square-foot plant, as well as by the automatic vehicles and the three-wheeled bikes that were used to transport parts from one place to another.
“As someone with a deep appreciation for advanced manufacturing and automobiles, I felt like a kid in a candy store getting to tour the state-of-the-art facility,” said Dean Taylor, a sophomore management major from Oshawa, Ontario. “Watching the seamless interplay between human workers and automated robotics on the production line was an awe-inspiring experience. The dedicated team at the plant takes immense pride in their work, upholding GM’s reputation for quality and innovation with every product that rolls off the line. I left with an even greater respect for the company and the hard-working men and women bringing their products to life.”
“The tour of the General Motors facility … was like stepping into our textbooks and seeing everything in action, which was super cool,” said John Counihan, a junior management major from Lancaster, N.Y. “Hearing the people speak at GM gave me a peek into the real challenges and fixes in keeping everything running smoothly. Plus, seeing all the fancy tech and robots doing their thing was fascinating. Overall, it was a fun and eye-opening experience that got me even more excited about supply chain management.
“I think it was a very interesting insight in how supply chain management can be implemented into a factory to make sure the production processes run smoothly,” agreed Felix Kogler, a junior management major from Carinthia, Austria. “Seeing how GM is running production in Lockport and getting to experience all the steps was very valuable and a very good experience overall.”
College of Business faculty Dr. Joseph Caruso, Dr. Ann Rensel, and Dr. Kilho Shin, and Phil Catanese, director of centers and college outreach, also took the tour.
