Extra Credit

Scholars help rescue a factory

"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." So goes the infamous putdown of academics. Well, some professors at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa really can. The scholars and their students have come to the rescue of a local General Motors carburetor assembly plant where 200 workers were about to lose their jobs. The automotive giant, frustrated with operating deficits at its Rochester Products Division factory, had planned to close it down. But the academics came up with a number of cost-cutting ideas that helped stem the plant's losses, and now Rochester Products is being hailed by GM as an example of the factory of the future.

The scholars relished the chance to put on coveralls and try out some of their ideas on the assembly line. Says Marketing Professor J. Barry Mason, chairman of the university's task force: "We couldn't stay locked in an ivory tower at a time like this." The workers, for their part, welcomed the helpful meddling. GM had bought the former textile mill in 1977, at the height of the new-car boom. But sales began a four-year slump in 1979, and in August 1982 GM announced it would close the factory unless local managers and workers could eliminate $2 million a year in losses. Tuscaloosa employees suggested 100 ways to cut costs, yet the total savings fell $500,000 short of what was needed.

At that point, members of the local Chamber of Commerce and two industrial development groups, who usually spend their time trying to attract new industries, realized they were about to lose an established one. They donated $75,000 and persuaded the university's business and engineering schools to turn the factory into a living laboratory. The university agreed in January, promising to pay for the cost of using the factory by finding $500,000 in annual savings or making up the difference in cash.

A law professor who was an expert on interstate shipping studied the factory's trucking contracts. He found them overpriced and suggested putting them out for new bids. Savings: $90,000. Engineering professors, inspired by a campus air-conditioning system that uses 60DEG F underground water, designed one to save electricity for the factory. Savings: $75,000. In total, the university found $470,000 in cost reductions and possibly an additional $175,000. Assembly-line workers cheered last month when the top brass from GM and the United Auto Workers arrived from Detroit and announced that the plant would be kept open for at least three more years as a continuing experiment.

Alabama's students, who had previously had little access to on-the-job training, now have a site for class projects. Says Ron Watson, a graduate student in mechanical engineering: "It's the unromantic end of the business, but it's good for me. When I do my project, it won't just be a pie in the sky, it will be real."

The challenge has brought friendlier ties between GM and U.A.W. Local 2083. Part of the deal for saving the plant called for concessions from the union, including one in which workers gave back $55 a week from their paychecks, which average $330 weekly. Says Alabama's Mason: "Large numbers of businesses have closed because people could not talk together in this way. There are an enthusiasm and a joy here now." Especially so because the project's success means that workers will be getting their money back, in the form of $1,600 checks, just in time for the holidays. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.