Setting up shop in the South

Over the past few months, I’ve had the chance to visit Hyundai Motor Group’s Metaplant outside of Savannah, Georgia. It’s the same complex that was raided by ICE for stupid political reasons. It’s also a new, massive complex slated to employ 8,500 by the time it’s all said and done, plus all the indirect manufacturing jobs that come along with it. If you assume a 6-to-1 ratio, which is on the conservative end of many of the different numbers being reported out there, that means that there’ll be a total of 51,000 jobs related to Hyundai’s manufacturing efforts in the region.

Hyundai’s Metaplant is the most advanced automotive manufacturing plant I’ve ever visited. It’s also Hyundai’s most advanced plant worldwide, drawing inspiration from the company’s Singapore complex.

It’s bright and airy inside. You don’t need to wear ear protection in stamping. Robots move the cars along the assembly line. There are still many humans, but automation assists at every stage of the process. Two Boston Dynamics Spot robots even inspect cars as part of the quality control process.

During this second tour, Hyundai’s people made the mistake of letting me have access to plant employees without a PR minder nearby. In this case, I met a woman who drives the cars on the plant’s test track to identify any squeaks or rattles that need fixing and to test the litany of driver-assist systems.

I was surprised that she didn’t have the fear of God put into her before talking to the media. She was calm and relaxed, and she enjoyed talking about her job, her family, and the changes in the area that came with the Metaplant’s opening. I never want to put a plant worker in a jam by asking questions they shouldn’t be answering. They’re just trying to do their job, after all, but this person was super comfortable chatting with me, asking questions, and so forth.

I find her job super interesting. She and her team drive every single vehicle that comes off the assembly line. This isn’t a random spot check; when the plant is producing nearly half a million cars a year, these folks are driving each and every one of them.

We have a brief moment where my backpack made a jingling noise, and I had to quickly say “whoa, no, that’s me” because her Spidey-senses went off. She also joked that she sometimes uses her horn driving around parking lots running errands because she’s sometimes in the work mindset.

But I digress. Unlike the produced videos that Hyundai showed us of happy employees, this was a chance to actually talk to one of them. And she was willing to share.

She never thought she’d have an automotive manufacturing job, but she has factory experience. She likes the diversity of food options that have opened thanks to the diversity that comes with a plant like this. She also wants to be a good representative for all international employees who might be in the area for the first time. She has learned Korean greetings, for example. While I don’t believe she was overly coached, she was an excellent representative for the positives that have come with the Metaplant.

I asked her about friends who might be skeptical of Hyundai’s quality, and she said that now that she sees how seriously the company takes quality and safety, she is confident telling people to check them out. She talked about how she’s empowered to call out issues and send vehicles back for whatever rework they might need. Honestly, she was a delightful person to speak with who felt quite authentic.

Later in the evening, after dinner, some colleagues and I found ourselves in a dive bar down the street from the hotel that President Jimmy Carter was fond of, even if when he jumped up on the bar it wasn’t to announce his presidential candidacy.

Being a small bar, we ended up chatting with some other locals. There was absolutely no PR anywhere, since it was like 2 am and they were likely all in bed, but once some folks found out what we did, we started talking about cars and the plant.

Anecdotally, most saw what the ICE raid was as a political stunt. It’s just as hard for them to understand why building cars here in the United States, like the President wants OEMs to do, would be a problem for that same government. That’s something we agreed on.

Not surprisingly, the biggest complaint was the cost of housing in the area around the plant. Considering it was pretty rural beforehand, rent has gone up along with the income in the area.

That’s to be expected, as housing inventory decreases, prices increase. There are likely profiteering individuals trying to take advantage of the situation, too. But with all the new businesses and opportunities come higher living costs.

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On the other hand, Hyundai has worked to help make some things affordable for plant workers.

To some, this will sound like the dystopian future of a company town, while others will see it as smart business sense. I believe that things can be good for both the company and the workers, even though I do joke that employees are paid in “José Bucks.”

The on-site clinic can handle emergency situations, of course, but employees are encouraged to visit if they aren’t feeling well. The quicker employees recover from illness, the less work they miss, of course, so not getting sick in the first place is a priority for both company and employee (because being sick also sucks).

The commissary makes take-home meals for employees who might not want to cook. Sure, you could visit a local restaurant and get takeout, but I’ve certainly been in situations where I just want to go home and not deal with people for the rest of the day.

This is all anecdotal, of course, but a reminder that moving a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility to an economically depressed part of the country can have a significant impact on that region. That can be a net positive in many cases, especially if the plant is adaptable enough to handle the ebbs and flows of the current automotive industry. HMGMA can flex and adapt quickly thanks to its design and, for now, is a boon to the local economy.

I’m sure it’s not universally good — and Hyundai has been in hot water in the past — but the Korean automaker’s commitment to the United States’ industrial base can be good for both the OEM and the country.