Fit and finish is important in the new for 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. How important?

Engineers at GM’s Wentzville Assembly Plant used a laser scanning system to scan mockups of interior and exterior portions of the trucks to test the fit of parts and assemblies that come from 5 GM assembly plants and up to 20 suppliers.

“We’re working with an entirely new vehicle architecture as well as the latest technology available for dimensional management,” said Bryan Vickery, dimensional engineer for Body Maintenance at Wentzville. “The process is a big part of delivering improved body structures, which translates to great vehicles to our customers.”

Over 200 parts were scanned using the system prior to the beginning of production. An example of the success of the technology is seen in a troublesome A-pillar between the windshield, instrument panel, and headliner. The assembly was checked piece by piece till a trim component was found to be out of spec and replaced.

The tools are still used in production to detect issues the human eye will miss. “The perfect body process helps everyone by quickly identifying the source of a particular issue and giving us guidance on what needs to be done to fix it,” said Mark Deterding, engineering manager for Magna Interiors. “We discover potential issues before they can affect the vehicle’s quality. We identify solutions and we use them to make sure our solutions work. It’s an additional step, but we’re happy to spend time with these perfect bodies because they mean safer, quieter and more reliable vehicles for the customer.”

image courtesy of General Motors