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A tour of Daimler Truck North America's plant in Cleveland, North Carolina, this week offered a glimpse inside a site that rolls out 80 new trucks per shift.

Why it matters: The tour highlighted automation and other manufacturing initiatives.

Context: Tariffs on aluminum prompted the North American division to add a $3,500 surcharge to each truck.

What they're saying: "We can put as much [surcharge] on as we want," says Daimler Truck North America CEO John O'Leary.

"Can we get it in the marketplace? That's the challenge right now."

Driving the news: Original equipment manufacturers are contending with a prolonged freight recession.

This week, Daimler Truck AG announced plans to lay off 5,000 workers in Germany by 2030 in a bid to help find €1 billion in savings.

Zoom in: The 45-minute golf cart tour provided an up-close look at the fine-tuned assembly process.

Chassis are mostly built upside down to let gravity assist workers as they add wheels, wires and other under-the-truck components.

Parts are picked by other robots to the specifications of each order, eliminating the need for workers to spend time hunting for them.

Each tractor also gets paint, fluids and everything else it needs to be driven off the 178-acre premises directly to a dealer or customer.

Quality-control checkpoints are sprinkled through the facility to ensure each truck is built to spec.

By the numbers: The 1.2 million-square-foot Cleveland plant is Daimler's largest in the U.S. and one of nine in North America.

The site employs about 2,000 workers, both union and non-union. 

Daimler this week touted the production of its 850,000th vehicle, a Western Star 47X delivered to the Alamo Group's snow-removal fleet.

Fun fact: Some cabs start the process in North Carolina and then travel two weeks by train to a facility in Portland, Oregon, for completion.

Reporter's notebook: Inside Daimler Truck North America's largest manufacturing plant

The tour featured automation and other manufacturing efficiency and cost-savings initiatives.

Robotic arms assemble truck cabs in Daimler Truck North America's Cleveland Truck Manufacturing Plant.

Robotic arms assemble truck cabs in Daimler Truck North America's Cleveland Truck Manufacturing Plant. (Photo courtesy of Daimler Truck North America)

A tour of Daimler Truck North America&#x27;s plant in Cleveland, North Carolina, this week offered a glimpse inside a site that rolls out 80 new trucks per shift.Why it matters: The tour highlighted automation and other manufacturing initiatives.

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Reporter's notebook: Inside Daimler Truck North America's largest manufacturing plant

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