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CORVETTE TODAY #178 - Meet Corvette Quality Launch Manager, Jeff Brown
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May 8, 2025
On this episode of CORVETTE TODAY, you'll meet another integral engineer behind the scenes that makes Corvette the supercar it is today. Jeff Brown in the Quality Launch Manager for Corvette. Previously, he was the Vehicle Systems Manager. You're probably saying to yourself, "what exactly are those two jobs and how do they relate to Corvette?" Your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, sits down with Jeff to talk about his role with Corvette. But here is a hint...Jeff was brought in for a one year stint to help launch the C8 Z06. He loves it so much, he decided to stay long-term! This is another great episode about a "behind-the-scenes" person who helps insure Corvette is great for us. Enjoy getting to know Jeff Brown on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY! Note: Screen captures courtesy of savagegeese video "How The 2023 Corvette C8 Z06 Is Made"
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[Music] welcome to Corvette today the podcast
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that talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett MC and DJ at one of the largest Corvette weekends
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in the country Corvette Fun Fest president of the Corvette club of Kansas City Missouri and radio disc jockey at
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the number one radio station in Kansas City for over 40 years here's Steve Garrett
0:25
[Music] thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about
0:31
everything Corvette and the only current podcast dedicated to Corvette I'm your
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host Steve Garrett I appreciate you tuning in Corva today is brought to you by wheelcraft want to dress up your
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Corvette enthusiasts from around the world my guest on today's show is the quality launch manager and more recently
2:47
the Vehicle Systems engineer for GM and Corvette now I know you're probably saying to yourself what exactly is a
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quality launch manager and a Vehicle Systems engineer well he's going to explain that to you and how it relates
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to Corvette he's been featured on Corvette videos namely the most outstanding Savage geese video about
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Corvette production his name is Jeff Brown Jeff welcome to Corvette today
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thanks for having me great to have you on the show buddy first of all let's talk about you Jeff let's talk about
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your childhood where you grew up your siblings and did you come from a car family sure good question so I actually
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was an only child which I think a lot of the people that I work with point that out pretty quickly to me as you grew up
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and a military family so I've never really lived in one place for more than five years my entire life and I've
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really enjoyed that upbringing because you're always going to a new place a new town meet new people and those skills
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have transferred to me as an adult today as far as being from a car family my parents they're airplane enthusiasts my
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dad was an F-15 pilot so that's what kept us so mobile when I was younger but on my mom's side of the family yeah I
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definitely came from a line of Gearheads so all my cousins when I was growing up had Chevelles and El Caminos and trucks
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of their own that I was exposed to at a very early age so seeing where I am today isn't much of a surprise that's
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cool so you did come from a Chevrolet family right yeah as I look back and kind of think how I was brought up I was
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probably drinking the Kool-Aid pretty young man my mother's side of their family they ran a farm so all of the
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support trucks that we ran were Chevrolets that's all I've owned and again the personal hot rods that we've
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been building over the years have been Chevy as well small blocks Big Blocks we've been fans so again it's a pretty
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natural fit for me to be able to do this for a living fantastic now when did you know you were a car guy and was
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Chevrolet your car from the get-go um it probably was so I've known I was a
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car guy for as long as my memory has served me and my parents have definitely confirmed that as well that when I was a
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toddler I think one of my favorite stories that my mom tells me and again this has passed my memory I was coming down the stairs into the garage and
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tripped rolled underneath our Oldsmobile at the time and they panicked they thought I was going to panic as well
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when they looked underneath the car they saw me just staring at the engine and poking at stuff and they had a pretty good idea at that point in time that I
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might have a future being a Gearhead myself well and I know that in previous videos that I've seen you knew all the
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car brands growing up as a little boy and you love the Like a Rock marketing from Chevrolet I did yeah but again
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another story that my folks tell when I was young enough to just see over the sill out the window of the car to other
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vehicles nearest at a stoplight all I could see were hubcaps and apparently I was able to identify that shape to the
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car that it was on and to my parents surprise is because my dad wasn't there with a car encyclopedia telling me what
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was there I just picked up the different names and I guess it was a natural fit that's cool
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our guy influence your career path when you went on to college uh sure so that
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passion really drove my entire academic career at a young age like pieced together pretty quickly that what I
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wanted to do as a car guy was get the opportunity to engineer the cars right so not just work on them I enjoy
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spinning wrenches a lot myself but to be able to influence their designs and affect how customers interact with the
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cars that I cared about that led me through a very stem focused academic career through high school so you know
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going through different robotics competitions and calculus and things of that nature and then as far as getting into school in University it was no
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different let's talk about University for a minute Jeff what did you study at college and what jobs did you take once
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you graduated college before you got to General Motors yeah so I went to Texas A M University down in College Station
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Texas I studied mechanical engineering and I actually stayed there and got my bachelor's and Master's both
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consecutively I decided you know what I want to learn a little bit more and I'm probably not going to want to to come back to school once I'm working so let's
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knock them both out together and I think the most pivotal decision I made while in school was serving on our Formula SAE
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race car team so basically that's a Collegiate competition around the world where students come together to build a
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car over the course of a year and compete and race with it and I got the opportunity to serve as the project
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manager and technical director for that vehicle which largely got me the exposure to General Motors and to get me
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into a job doing this professionally when I was in high school again I was pretty clear that I wanted to get into
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the automotive field looking at all of the universities across the country admittedly when I was younger I was much
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more of a truck guy so my first vehicle that I cut my teeth on is as far as wrenching was a Jeep Cherokee that I've
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since built into this massive rock crawler that I take across the country and run the hardest Trails I can find I
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was looking for a combination of a strong mechanical engineering school that also had an off-road club and
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believe it or not they kind of Narrows the list down quite a bit and I found Texas A M off-road club and during my
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junior year of high school when I went to visit the university I went and met some of the folks that participated on
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that team and I definitely found my group and of course the university itself had an outstanding program so the
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decision was pretty easy for me as soon as I made that visit I canceled the rest of my applications and just full steam
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ahead down to College Station very cool great story well buddy let's take our first break when we get back we're going
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833-639-4231 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me today is Jeff Brown the quality launch manager and more recently the
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Vehicle Systems engineer for GM and Corvette in the second segment we're going to talk about Jeff's Works career
12:03
and how we got to General Motors Jeff we talked a little bit about your jobs right out of college give me the story
12:08
about your transition from the job you had into General Motors sure so when I was in college I took full Advan
12:14
advantage of getting any internship that I could right so I had a lot of fun working for a variety of different
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companies doing different things just to see if I'd be interested or not so I actually started out doing some material
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science research for Boeing I also went to Peterbilt company in Denton Texas to put semi trucks together and I even
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spent a summer as a field service electrical engineer servicing the Midwest going to various power stations
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and learning that's exactly what I did not want to do for the rest of my life and I got very lucky that the final
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internship that I was able to secure was with General Motors at the Milford Proving Ground as we've touched on it's
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pretty evident I'm a car guy I love this stuff and to arrive at The Proving Ground for General Motors for the first
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time was surreal and a shock I mean you're talking about the largest Automotive Proving Ground in the world
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with around 145 miles of testing roads that are specifically engineered to
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bring out the best and worst from all of our products so that first summer working on full-size truck basically
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durability testing them and see where they broke and been improving them I was sold that was the end I knew I had no
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chance I would have to come back to work for GM for a living that's fantastic now let's talk about how you got into GM and
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what jobs you had when you first got there and then how did you get to Corvette sure so as I mentioned I was
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able to work with our College race car team and that got me the visibility to get an interview with GM and got me that
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first internship and also as I mentioned my initial interests were largely in the full-size truck space because that's
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where I spent a lot of time growing up spent a lot of time around them I knew the products very well so my first job
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was as a Driveline development engineer and I really enjoyed that time because it was a really Hardware focused role
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where I was constantly in the garage with the engineers and the technicians tearing Vehicles down putting new
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components on them and it also gave me an opportunity for a lot of seat time I just love being behind the wheel of different products and seeing what their
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strengths are and just general vehicle performance is something that I really appreciate so that first year year and a
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half or so I was focused at Milford testing those vehicles and also getting to do different ride trips where we'd go
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to the sand dunes for example and evaluate the off-road prowess of the vehicles as well as their on-road
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capabilities so great start really enjoyed that opportunity and that led me to the next assignment as assistant
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program engineering manager on the full-size SUV vehicle so your Tahoes
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Yukon Suburbans Escalades that we build in Arlington Texas I got the opportunity
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to work with that team while they were introduced to the plant for the first time so that zoomed me out a bit from
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the fun of Hardware exposure and seat time and more of the nitty-gritty of program management right the business
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side and the launch execution of bringing pre-production vehicles from
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the relative comfort of headquarters where the entire team is able to be there to support into a new
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manufacturing footprint and getting that other team up to speed and bringing those new products into light in a very
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condensed timeline so that way we can get new products into Market as quickly as possible very cool now you more
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recently or the Vehicle Systems engineer for General Motors and now you're the quality launch manager talk about those
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two titles and exactly what those entail excellent yeah so after I did that truck
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work a Corvette opportunity came up and those are very attractive roles so I raised my hand as soon as I saw that in
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the first job that I got in Corvette was actually as what's called an IRT culture that's an issue Resolution Team coach
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here and I was assigned to Bowling Green assembly here in Kentucky for the Z06 launch so there's obviously a period of
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time before the vehicles are available for customers where we get factories up to speed on various brand new models and
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get everything going before we're able to be at full production run rate I was serving the chassis and active thermal
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space specifically in that IR key role so everything on the vehicle basically the dirty site right the structure
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steering suspension breaks power train cooling air conditioning as well all of those components of the car were my
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responsibility when those z06s were coming down the line for the first time so you can imagine the mix between
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intensity and reward because there's so much going on at once and there's a lot of pressure to make sure that you're
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able to deliver from your space but I absolutely loved it and really thrive in
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this launch type environment about a year and a half into serving as the RT I got the opportunity to expand my
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responsibility to take on as you mentioned the vehicle system engineering role as well so actually serve both
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those roles concurrently where I maintained every vehicle that came down the line in the launch Cadence as well
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as own the business aspect and the current product aspect of the entire architecture so as a Vehicle Systems
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engineer you really represent about 40 to 50 Engineers around the globe that own the individual components within the
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subsystems that I just mentioned and there's a ton of different deliverables that you got to stay on top of within
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all of those different components so that even includes different warranty items if that might be the case and also
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pre-production design items if that's an option as well in addition to the manufacturing responsibilities so I
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enjoyed being able to maintain presence here in the plant as well as being able
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to expand to the larger vehicle as a whole wow that's amazing part of your job an important part of your job was
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getting back to the design Engineers about how Bowling Green assembly plant installs what they've designed you were
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essentially like a conduit between Bowling Green assembly plant and the design Engineers right yeah you have a
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very good understanding of my job responsibility to be honest with you as an engineer having tangible skills and
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wrenching experience personally and professionally that was crucial in being able to convey some of the challenges
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that we might see live with tangible assembly back to some of the engineering teams that work in different spaces that
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may not be as close to the product as I was so I felt unique suited and in a unique position to help the team succeed
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because I had so much exposure to everything live while also having to maintain a really good understanding of
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the virtual presence of the vehicle and how we engineer within those different models and things you're the perfect person for the job Jeff that's for sure
18:31
I appreciate that I'll send that along to my managers you got it tell them you need a raise Jeff outline a typical day for you at
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the bowling green assembly plant sure so that as you can imagine the probably the most cliche answer is there is no
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typical day but that couldn't be more true I'll speak to that as an IRT VSC in a launch window we have scheduled build
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weeks where the new cars are introduced to the factory when we're not in those build ways there's an enormous amount of
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preparation for a variety of different aspects so material availability and presentation is probably Paramount in
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ensuring that you can actually assemble the cars but you also have to manage any potential design or process changes that
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can help iterate the product or process to improve it in the long run so it's really a balance of the essentials the
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foundation of putting a car together as well as introducing these incremental improvements as the launch Cadence
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matures so that really took a lot of my time and of course when it's showtime and it's a build week it's all hands on
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deck I might be unique in just kind of enjoying the firefighting aspect when you're there with your team and it's
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happening live you really have no one to rely on but yourself so you have to be very resourceful and creative understand
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your team and your capabilities of what you can do to solve these problems as they're happening because there's so
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much depending on all of this running smoothly and successfully amazing well buddy let's take our final break when we
19:53
come back in segment three we're going to talk more about the Bowling Green assembly plant and the C8 Corvette coming up next on Corvette today
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this is the Corvette Today podcast with Steve Garrett
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thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette brought to you by
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wheelcraft summer is here and so is car show season you want your Corvette looking its best dress it up with bright
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Chrome or black chrome wheels visit wheelcraft.com and learn about their Advanced PVD chrome finishing they can
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refinish your wheels or do a wheel exchange and you get a five-year warranty visit wheelcraft.com today or
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call them 833-639-4231 I'm your host Steve Garrett
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with me is quality launch manager Jeff Brown Jeff in this third segment let's talk about the Bowling Green Assembly
23:59
Plant GM spent a lot of money transitioning Bowling Green from the C7 to the C8 let's talk about that
24:05
transition and about the differences between the build lines from then up to now sure so as you can imagine going
24:12
from a front engine architecture to a rear engine architecture for the first time wasn't unbelievable undertaking and
24:19
a lot of the conversations focused around what it took to make the car different and how to architect from that
24:24
perspective but again as you'd imagine the assembly process is just as critical because if you can't put the car
24:29
together then you have nothing more than rendering so back for the 2020 launch for the C8 Stingray the amount of effort
24:36
put into the lines to completely re-architect the plant was mind-boggling working and talking with the team
24:43
members that supported that live on a daily basis honestly it's such a Herculean task it's amazing to see how
24:49
smooth they were able to run today that's really cool Jeff talk about the C8 Stingray and transitioning into the
24:56
Z06 and then the upcoming e-ray as well yeah so that was the first job that brought me to Bowling Green assembly
25:02
admittedly that was intended to be a one-year assignment a few years back and you can see how well that's lasted as
25:08
I'm still here working on a daily basis I just love what we get to do but as you can imagine when you introduce a new
25:15
architecture into a plant you have to have enough foresight into what the architecture is going to include to be
25:21
able to be prepared from the get-go so when the CH Stingray was brought here as
25:26
I just mentioned it was still a massive undertaking to get that single car to come down the line right after C7 just
25:33
because they're so fundamentally different in the way that they're engineered and assembled we had similar
25:39
iterations coming into the wide body variants of Z06 and e-rays so again working on Z06 I was boots on the ground
25:45
sort of the tip of the spear and seeing what that looked like the lines themselves have to be prepared for all
25:51
of the new features and differences in them so when we brought Z06 here the line was moving with stingrays coming
25:58
down on a daily basis we didn't get the opportunity to turn the line off and say well let's see how this fits here or how
26:04
does this operation feel we had to have all of our homework done so when that first car hit the line we were ready to
26:10
go so in addition as I mentioned there's some new content for example the center front radiator we knew that was going to
26:17
be coming in for Z06 it was a requirement to ensure our thermal capacity was there that station was
26:23
already already allocated down one of our chassis lines we just didn't need to turn it on until that variant was
26:28
introduced to the plant wow that is part of the process of launch is getting not
26:34
only those new features turned on for the first time but also getting repetitions for us as a launch Team and
26:39
The Operators that are going to do it on a daily basis so the entire activity is very comprehensive of what needs to be
26:44
accomplished that also of course carried into the e-rays that we're building today it was from my perspective a good
26:51
transition that we got exposure to Z06 first I've seen the wide body proportions running that down the line
26:57
The Wider wheels and tires Steve as you know you've seen the rear wheels and tires on e-rain Z06 are awesome and
27:05
they're almost hilarious with their Dimensions the amount of grip that they provide that's amazing I know a really
27:10
important part of the Bowling Green assembly plant build line is the integration of the stingray the Z06 and
27:15
then also the exports talk about that philosophy behind the different variants coming down the line all at the same
27:22
time which is pretty amazing it is and it also definitely adds some workload to us as you can imagine so yeah the our
27:29
export exposure is greater than it's ever been this is the first time that we're building right hand drive variants
27:34
down the production line and sending them around the world as an Enthusiast it's very exciting because now you're
27:40
seeing people globally sing the Praises of the car that we all know is so amazing and now it has the opportunity
27:47
to get into the hands of more drivers that was something we were adamant about early on in the scoping of C8 wanting to
27:53
get the car out because we knew how World Class it would be that it'd be a shame to limit it to only left-hand Drive markets and it's always fun when
27:59
I'm taking new people through the factory and they see just the dash or the instrument panel and they see the steering column on the right hand side
28:05
everyone is very surprised by that it's like yep same line those all of those different unique features have to be
28:11
assemblable in the exact same way that we've been doing to this point so again it's really a function of preparation
28:17
and doing your homework to know what you intend to offer and then ensure that you
28:22
have the capabilities of some doing that's amazing I recently at the NCM Michelin bash went through the plant
28:29
again on a tour and it was so cool to see right hand drive cars just sitting there you see them in pictures when you
28:35
see it in person it's just really really cool yeah you do a double check don't you yeah absolutely also you got a new
28:41
job now Jeff you're a quality launch manager talk about that and the transition that you made from the
28:47
Vehicle Systems engineer to this current job yeah this has been a really fun transition and it happened relatively
28:53
recently and fairly quickly again working as a Vehicle Systems engineer your homeroom is really focused on the
28:59
product side of the house so as I mentioned I was in a unique spot being a liaison for product engineering in a
29:04
manufacturing environment whereas this new role serving as a quality launch manager my homeroom is now the
29:11
manufacturing footprint it's really exciting opportunity for me because I get to zoom out and take on the entire
29:17
automobile instead of just focusing within the chassis and active thermal space as I've been doing before so I'm
29:23
looking forward to seeing different aspects of the vehicle that I was aware of but wasn't as focused on previously
29:29
and now I get to work with an unbelievable team of quality Engineers that have a lot of experience in this
29:35
space as well to ensure all of our future products are as good as we're building today well congratulations on
29:40
the new job for sure buddy thanks Dave I'm loving it talk about some of the biggest challenges you've had with C8
29:45
production how's it being addressed among the workers and the team Builders yeah I think the biggest challenge that
29:51
I always harp on is also what makes us so good and that's really the complexity that we offer and that's not an accident
29:58
it's very intentional as we just mentioned we want to get the car to as many customers as we can but we also
30:03
want to offer as many options as possible and of course that introduces a pain Point here because the easiest
30:09
thing that we could do to build a car would be the Henry Ford mentality if you could have any color you want as long as
30:15
it's black but as you notice at the Corvette owner yourself your expectation is going to be a little bit higher than
30:20
that what that takes it's a full court press from the entire our team in organization Supply Chain management as
30:27
well as introducing efficiencies where we're able to so the way I look at being successful here is from the product side
30:34
of the house to engineer as many efficiencies into the vehicle as you can not have unnecessary redundancies and
30:41
then from the manufacturing side of the house it's kind of more of a function of innovation to absorb these greater
30:47
workloads in the breadth of the portfolio that we offer that sounds really really cool that's amazing Jeff
30:53
let's talk about the engine build Center I know somewhere down the road we're going to have the Z06 engine build experience in a video I saw in eight
31:01
hours you can build 2.75 engines how does one become a Z06 Master engine
31:07
builder yes as you can imagine a very prestigious opportunity with in the factory here and one that a lot of
31:13
people pursue but of course it's not as easy as just raising your hand wanting to do it because then we'd have a line
31:19
going out the door people would be building lt6 engine of course with the lt6 itself it's in a
31:26
different realm as far as engine assembly it is literally a race car engine so as you're aware Steve we're
31:32
going into GT3 racing next year with Corvette and the lt6 that supplies those Vehicles come from the performance build
31:39
Center here in Bowling Green wow yeah of course it's got some modifications after the fact to fit the spec of the
31:45
different series which they compete but the bones of that engine are what you have in your Z06 going to work every day
31:52
or going to the track on the weekends which when you zoom out and think about what that means that's pretty special
31:57
that you're really driving a street legal race car on a daily basis again all that Prestige makes it a very
32:03
attractive position but we have to make sure that the individuals who put these together have the skill sets to put a
32:08
successful engine together this isn't a hard and fast syllabus if you will to be credentialed but we typically ask the
32:14
engine builders to work for about a year in other engine assemblies so here at the PBC we also put together lt4 engines
32:20
and LT ones for Camaros so lt4 course for the Cadillac portfolio the awesome Escalade B and our ct5b Blackwing giving
32:28
operators exposure on those engines then they'll get the opportunity of course there has to be some Manpower
32:34
availability it's not just you want to do it you get the chance there has to be an opening and a need you Apprentice for
32:39
roughly six to eight weeks so that is working with a current lt6 Master engine builder to understand all the specific
32:47
Precision needed for that engine itself and then at that point in time of course after being able to prove your own
32:53
individual competence can we cut you loose to put your own lt6s together and have that sacred nameplate on the back
32:59
of the engine in the car which is of course Very Special they take a lot of pressure absolutely right now I know
33:06
each Z06 engine has dynoed for 20 minutes right after assembly run through that process for me and what happens if
33:13
an engine doesn't pass the dyno test yeah good question so for those that don't know lt6 again being a race car
33:18
engine gets a lot of white glove treatment so we send every single hand bill lt6 engine off for a 20 minute Dyno
33:26
break and run so that process as you can imagine is very tight very scripted so after the engine is built and passes all
33:33
the quality Gates here at the PVC it's sent over to a separate facility where it's plumbed put into the dyno cell and
33:40
the first movement that the engine feels is actually just motoring of the dyno before it's even fired just make sure
33:45
the rotating assembly is passing all of our quality Gates and it's hugely instrumented as well we're pulling a ton
33:51
of data off the engine as it's exposed to the dyno to the first time as a health check after that point in time
33:57
fire it off and it runs through a very specific and it's been iterated over the years of ramped break-in schedule so as
34:05
you can imagine race car engines break in is very crucial and imperative to good performance out of the engine and
34:12
this script basically ramps in different engine RPMs but interestingly after each Plateau there's a slight relaxation
34:19
window and as an engineer I find these things fascinating because that way was largely advised by our metallurgists to
34:25
allow for some bearing relaxation as it entered the next Cadence of the engine dynamometer test so after it finishes
34:32
this ramp it gets to sing with its full lungs we do a full load full watt pull
34:38
we just absolutely open it up anyone who knows anything about these cars whether you've heard it live or just have heard
34:44
every video on YouTube as I have her voice is beautiful so in the dinosaur it's absolutely screaming and then the
34:51
final step of that test is to motor it down the same way we motored it up and that's again a final health check to
34:57
look at all the sensors on the engine before we take it off and then the final step or the quality gates to do a final
35:03
inspection on it and we even cut open the oil filter to identify any potential contaminants give it a fresh oil send it
35:10
back here to the general assembly line and we put it in the car and as one of the guys who was very focused on the
35:16
engine line during the Z06 launch I always loved seeing the lt6 itself because the heat shields around the
35:22
exhaust manifold were already rainbowed they'd already had one hard pulling them you could see it and just I don't know
35:27
even though the car is fresh the engines already had a nice pull and it's ready to go that's really cool I'd love to see
35:32
one of those Dyno tests and it's really cool that you cut open the oil filter too yes that's really neat you know
35:38
Corvette would be nothing Jeff without the pride and the enthusiasm of every single team member talk about that and
35:45
what sets the Bowling Green assembly plant apart from everybody else yeah there's something intangible in the air
35:50
here and I think that's really what made it a no-brainer for me to extend my tenure indefinitely there's the unspoken
35:58
understanding that this is the American Supercar and everyone that comes into work on a daily basis day in and day out
36:05
you can feel it just the way that people speak around the jobs the way they speak around the car it really does feel like
36:12
more than just a paycheck and more than just a job because every car that rolls off this line is somebody's dream
36:18
because at the end of the day you don't necessarily have to have a Corvette to be able to get to work or get to school
36:24
this is a treat this is something that a lot of people have strived for their entire lives and that's well known at
36:29
every level of this organization in the plant and in the engineering teams that type of energy to come into every day is
36:36
very inspiring and makes us all bring our best foot forward to bring all that home again it's known amongst the team
36:42
but on a daily basis we have tours going through the factory as well and as you can imagine that's not common for every
36:48
GM manufacturing facility not everyone is asking to see how their commuter is
36:53
put together whereas every one of these cars is built for someone who's very enthusiastic so seeing the tours come
36:59
through on a daily basis and seeing everyone absolutely Marvel as to how we put the pieces of the puzzle together
37:05
that just keeps that energy thriving that's fantastic you can see the pride in the line I remember going through and
37:11
saying hi to some of these people while they were building you could see the pride just gleaming off their face yes
37:17
absolutely bloody thank you so much for taking the time to be on Corvette today this has been so much fun let's do it
37:22
again soon absolutely this has been a lot of fun I look forward to see when you come back out to Bowling Green thanks for listening to Corvette today
37:28
and please be sure to tell your family friends and other core of that enthusiasts about the Corvette Today podcast and thanks to our sponsors
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