uilding a better bus.

James Tooley, plant manager of the Nova Buss assembly plant at 260 Banker Road, showed the inner workings of the $25 million, 140,000-square-foot facility Monday.

The company broke ground April 16, 2008. Enough work was done on the structure by Jan. 5 to start equipment installation.

"We are very pleased with the caliber and skill of the people we've been able to hire," Tooley said.

He said some of those employees may have taken jobs at Nova Bus in search of employment stability during the difficult economic times. Production workers started to arrive May 13, Tooley said.

"We put them through a 2-week training and orientation program," he said.

The first day, they learn about the company. An operation scoreboard is on display to outline the Volvo Group's key performance indicators.

The five main categories are safety, delivery, cost, quality and morale. Tooley said 39 sub-categories within those five categories are measured.

"Each (work) station has their own KPI's that in combination lead up to the site scoreboard," he said.

Volvo Group experts will grade the Plattsburgh plant based on those measures, which are measured throughout the corporation.

"You should be able to go to any Volvo plant in the world and they will measure the same things," Tooley said.

Workers then go through seven days of training at Clinton Community College and two final days to get acquainted with the facility.

Seven classes have completed training, one is in progress and the final two started last week.

Tooley said a new plant offers a tremendous opportunity to bring in a fresh workforce.

"We have an energized workforce that is happy to be here," he said.

There were 146 employees as of June 8, and there will be 172 when the final two classes start. Tooley said the company expects to have about 190 employees by the end of July.

"Most of our recruitment has taken place," he said.

Tooley said the production leadership team assembled the first demo bus starting March 30. They worked station by station to learn about the various work stations, and to identify where there might be risk.

That bus now sits at the northeastern end of the production area.

"This is the first (demo bus) of three. Our sales and marketing people take them to trade shows," Tooley said.

He said production workers started work on their first bus May 13. Their first two are also demo buses.

The stainless-steel shells are produced at the Nova Bus facility in St. Francois-du-Lac, Quebec. They are shipped by tractor-trailer to Plattsburgh and delivered to the north-west end of the production area.

There are 17 production stations and five finishing stations in the plant. Many of the first nine stations utilize specialized fixtures to help with assembly.

"They are all tailor made to make each step efficient and safe," Tooley said.

There are four to six workers at each station. Plans call for them to work mainly at one station to perfect their portion of the work.

"About 50 percent of our assemblers have assembly line experience. We have to get the rest used to the cadence of an assembly line," he said.

Presently, work takes 12 hours at each station. That will be reduced to 8 hours at each station by the end of June, Tooley said.

One of many overhead cranes lifts the shell onto the first station. Work there includes installation of the driver's partition, flooring, wheel partitions and access ramp.

The shell is lifted onto a turnover fixture at the next station. An attachment at each end of the bus is connected and the shell is slowly turned upside down.

Processes at this and the third station are concentrated on the ceiling areas, so the inversion allows a more comfortable work environment. The shell is turned back upright and then lifted onto dollies.

A fixture at the fourth work station features a series of suction cups to hold a fiberglass end cap in place as it is lifted and placed on the shell. The end cap includes the back window and tail light locations.

Thermoplastic skirt panels protect the lower portion of the frame from damage from rocks and debris. That's one of many weight-saving measures.

"For fuel economy, our design engineers have to be very cognizant of weight," Tooley said.

Cummins engines are installed in the rear of each bus, and HVAC systems are installed on the roof.

Another specialized fixture is used to install the axles. The axle jig can move side to side and front to back, then lifts the axle into place.

After the ninth station, the bus is lowered onto dollies in trenches, then pushed laterally to the other side of the production area, where it begins the journey back toward the north end of the building. At the eleventh station, fuel and lubricants are pumped from storage tanks near the south end of the production area, safely located behind thick containment walls.

The bus is now able to be driven to each of the remaining stations. The remainder of the work is mainly interior finishing.

In addition to multiple layers of diagnostic tests during assembly, the buses will undergo about 30 miles of road tests on local highways and water tests to insure impermeability.

The water test room features a metal frame with scores of water nozzles. The bus is soaked with water sprayed at various pressures to check for leaks.

This year, the company is building 40-foot LFS (Low Floor System) buses for BC Transit and TransLink, two transit authorities in British Columbia. Those orders were placed as the Vancouver area prepares for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

That work will take most of the Plattsburgh plant's capacity until near the end of this year. The Nova Bus plant in St. Eustache, Quebec, is also building buses for that order.

Tooley said the company has participated in a number of requests for proposals. That includes a possible order with the Metropolitan Transit Authority's New York City Transit.

"Should the outcome be positive, Nova Bus would be very proud to supply buses for this transit authority," he said.

There is also an agreement to build 10 buses for Disney. That work is expected to begin in November or December, Tooley said.

The plant was designed so it could be expanded for any type of bus construction.

The eastern half of the building is devoted to office space, locker rooms, conference rooms and a large lunch room. The western half of the building includes the production area and water-test room.

The facility is a final assembly plant, so it doesn't have departments such as design engineering, purchasing, marketing and after sales and service. In addition to production, Plattsburgh has finance, human resources, quality assurance, manufacturing and engineering, maintenance and logistics departments.

Production is by far the largest group, Tooley said.

Tooley said he was impressed how the many organizations and agencies in the Plattsburgh area worked to bring Nova Bus here. They include The Development Corp., Empire State Development, Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce, the Town of Plattsburgh and OneWorkSource, among others.

"They were basically asking, 'How can we help,'" Tooley said.

Nova Bus suppliers Spencer ARL New York and B3CG have since located in the Town of Plattsburgh and Cintube has taken space in the Imperial Industrial Park in the City of Plattsburgh.

Spencer ARL does sub-assembly work and delivers components on a just-in-time basis, which allows Nova Bus to minimize its storage space. It is performing about 230 sub-assemblies to deliver about 150 components.

B3CG assembles harnesses and control panels, while Cintube is involved in bending tubes used for equipment such as fuel- and water-system lines.

A ceremonial grand opening is scheduled for Monday. Tooley said more than 350 people have been invited, but it was unclear last week how many will attend.

Tooley said he was pleased Walter and Edith Banker were able to tour the plant, as it was built on land they used to own. They told him they enjoyed watching the plant's construction from their home across the street.

"They were so happy that their land was being used for a site that will provide jobs for their neighbors and community," he said. "They were so proud to be able to make a contribution to the community."

E-mail Dan Heath at: dheath@pressrepublican.com