Imported vehicles get finishing touches at U.S. port factories

PORT NEWARK, N.J. -- To travelers landing at Newark Liberty International Airport, the vast fields of vehicles on the ground below look like so many livestock pens. Thousands of cars and trucks wait there to be hauled to dealerships up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

What can't be seen from the air are the dockside factories that apply the final touches to half a million vehicles that pass through each year.

Here, as at other seaports, dedicated facilities owned by individual automakers, as well as giant multibrand processing centers, shepherd autos arriving from overseas and ready them for buyers.

Inspections are done, repairs are made, and accessories from satellite radios to alloy wheels to roof racks are installed.

Take, for example, the 250-acre operation of Foreign Auto Preparation Services Inc., which has the contracts for brands including Ferrari, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, and Volvo.

The company, which moved to Newark 55 years ago from New York, established itself repairing the damage done when imported cars were still hoisted off the ship by cranes.

Today its services still include body repairs (although cars are now driven from the ship's hold) but it also does the accessory installations and manages distribution logistics.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s 98-acre operation at Newark's port is something of a scaled-down assembly plant, although the work -- adding a range of so-called port-installed options into 21 models -- is done largely by hand using simple tools, not by computer-controlled industrial robots.

About 185 employees work in Toyota's car wash, quality control center, and five production shops at the port.

By adding items such as floor mats and GPS systems at its distribution centers instead of at its factories, Toyota gives customers a chance to tinker with their orders until just two days before the vehicles dock in Newark.

And it gives dealers a way to stand apart from their competitors.

"We want to tailor the vehicle to what the customer wants," said Bill Barrett, the national logistics manager at the Newark location. "We build the car they want."

The facility, which Toyota has operated for more than two decades, is a way station for up to 12,500 cars at a time that arrive by ship from Japan.Nearly every Toyota, Lexus, and Scion built in Japan and destined for sale from Virginia to Maine passes through the facility.

In a typical week, two shiploads of vehicles arrive, although since the March tsunami slowed production, the pace has slowed to one ship a week.

The process of customizing the roughly 3,000 vehicles that arrive on each ship starts the day before it docks in Newark.

That's when John Hagel, who runs the driving team, determines how many longshoremen and drivers will be needed to get the vehicles to their parking spots, which are assigned by the accessories to be added.

One day this summer, for instance, it took about 100 drivers eight hours to unload a ship that had made the four-week trip from Tahara, Japan, through the Panama Canal.

Once parked, the vehicles are inspected; any damaged in transit go to the body shop.

Only one vehicle that arrived on that boat in August needed work, Mr. Barrett said.

Next, the bar codes on the shipping manifests, which include a list of accessories to be added, are scanned.

Lexus vehicles, which receive more attention than Toyotas and Scions do, are also driven on a bumpy track to check for squeaks and rattles.

Toyota's production returned in September to levels of before the tsunami.

That means more to do for Nelson Noda's dozen-member team, whose job is to install electronics, including alarms, satellite radios, and remote starters. The work is done as the cars move down the middle of a building about the size of a football field.

Employees at the work stations to the left and right complete a variety of tasks.

One worker spent about 30 minutes installing a Bluetooth hands-free system under the steering column of a red Prius. He needed just a few tools to complete his task and test the system.

"Everything is now plug-and-play," Mr. Noda said. "No splicing wires like we did years ago."

At the opposite end of the shop, another team unbolted the factory-installed wheels from a 4Runner and replaced them with alloy rims. In the next shop, teams installed wheel locks, bumper protectors, body moldings, and a variety of exterior items, including a clear film that helps to prevent paint chips on front ends.

Nearby, two workers used a metal fixture to determine where to drill holes before bolting a roof rack onto an SUV.

It is Rui Sousa's job to order accessories daily from suppliers, based on expected needs in two days' time. He has honed his system so finely that the amount of just-in-time inventory has been cut by about two-thirds during the last four years.

In all, vehicles spend from two to six days at Toyota's facility, depending on the work they require.

It takes on average another 1.9 days for a vehicle, once completed, to leave the facility.

Newark is Toyota's busiest port in the United States.

BMW's port operation takes a different approach, putting its logistics center some 3 miles away in Jersey City.

That means having to drive up to 1,500 BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce models that arrive by boat each week from Germany (with a stop in Britain) or South Africa to the facility, an all-day job for as many as 100 drivers.

Because many BMWs are effectively made to order, the range of accessories installed in New Jersey is generally limited more to performance kits and cosmetic items such as spoilers, air dams, and custom wheels, said Carol Furey, the facility manager.