Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly

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Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly is a General Motors automobile factory straddling the border between Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan. It is located about three miles (5 km) from corporate headquarters and has been used for production of Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac products.

The 362 acre (1.46 km²) site was once an inner-city neighborhood known as Poletown, but was razed and converted to a $500 million assembly plant in 1985. Poletown was the location for 1,200 homes and businesses, including Chrysler's Dodge Main factory. The destruction of this neighborhood was the subject of five years of protests and court battles, but the city sided with General Motors, seeking new jobs and investment. The city took the land by eminent domain, and this decision was later criticized as a misuse of this power.

The 2,990,000 square foot (278,000 m²) factory was one of the most high-tech in the industry when it was built, and was part of a modernization effort for GM that also included the Buick City complex in Flint. Some of the advances in place included a modular paint system, electric (rather than hydraulic) robots, just-in-time deliveries, and a plan for paperless operations.

Not everything worked as planned. The robots were notoriously unreliable and the plant's reliance on them was radically reduced. The E-body personal luxury cars manufactured at Poletown were also poorly received and soon cancelled. Cadillac K-body production was consolidated there in the 1990s, but sales were weakening. By the late 1990s, industry analysts were asking what went wrong at the factory. GM too seemed to be losing faith, cancelling the Epsilon platform crossovers due to be manufactured there and moving the Cadillac Eldorado to the Lansing Craft Centre. But production continued, and Detroit/Hamtramck currently produces large front-wheel drive cars for Buick and Cadillac.