BLUE SPRINGS, Miss. (WTVA) -- Mike Durham explains what sounds like a daunting process.
He says 24 team members must perform inspections inside and out as each Toyota Corolla rolls off the assembly line every 85 seconds.
Since production began in the fall of 2011, more than 100,000 Corollas have rolled off the line at the plant in Union County.
Some 2,200 people are employed at the Blue Springs plant.
Eighty five percent live within a 60-mile radius of the plant.
Ninety percent of the employees are from Mississippi, like Susan Nanney. She works on the assembly line.
"I'd lost my job when Kay's Furnishings in New Albany closed the doors in 2010. I was on unemployment for about a year, and when Toyota called, I took the opportunity. I thank God for my job. I enjoy my job," Nanney said.
Just as this journey has been a challenging one for the company, it has also become one for team members who are building cars for the first time.
"It's been both a challenge and very rewarding to watch the faces of the team members," said David Copenhaver, the vice president for Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mississippi. "These folks have never built a car before, and how proud they are when that car comes off the end of the line. It gives you a good feeling. They've come in and adapted to the Toyota way of doing things."
"We started doing cars, and it was like a few a day and different things like that," said Eric Lagrone, a Toyota team member. "Then when they ramped up to where we were building 300 cars a shift, we were like we'll never be able to do that, but that next week, we were doing it. It was very amazing that you see how everybody comes together and works as one, and it worked out."
