ASSEMBLY magazine (www.assemblymag.com) published a special section in its July issue to celebrate the 100th anniversary of General Motors Corp. Articles and photos focus on the people, products, plants and production processes of the past, present and future.

ASSEMBLY published the centennial section because GM has a unique manufacturing heritage. For most of the 20th century, the company ranked as the world’s largest manufacturer. Along the way, its assembly lines have mass-produced millions of cars, trucks, tractors, tanks, refrigerators, diesel locomotives and other products.

Engineers at GM pioneered many production tools and techniques, such as the use of interchangeable parts, annual model changeover and flexible assembly lines. In addition, they played a key role in developing robots, programmable logic control, automated material handling, computer simulation, machine vision and other types of production technology.

ASSEMBLY has been covering GM for 50 years. In fact, when the first issue of the magazine rolled off the printing press in October 1958, it contained a feature article about one of the company’s plants in Flint, MI.

ASSEMBLY’s Web site contains additional online exclusive material, such as photo slideshows, a timeline of GM’s manufacturing milestones, and an article about GM’s current production strategy in China.

ASSEMBLY published a similar section in May 2003 to mark the centennial of Ford Motor Co., where the moving assembly line was developed.