The Assembly Plant of the Year has been going 20 years strong. Who will be the next to claim the award?

DES MOINES—A controversial bill passed by the Iowa Senate in the wee hours of the morning would loosen child labor laws in the state and allow some manufacturers to employ children under the age of 18 in their facilities.

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA — Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co., the industry’s largest manufacturer of refrigerated trailers, recently announced that the company broke its all-time record for trailer production in 2019.

TORONTO—Bombardier Inc. has signed a deal to sell its Downsview aircraft assembly plant in Toronto for US$635 million to the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, the company said in a statement last week. Under a lease agreement, Bombardier will continue to operate from the Downsview assembly site for up to 3 years following the closing of the deal, with two optional one-year extension periods.

ORION TOWNSHIP, MI—A General Motors Co. manufacturing plant in Metro Detroit that was idled during the Detroit automaker’s federally induced bankruptcy is now one of the keys to GM’s future, reports The Detroit News. Orion Assembly is one of two plants where GM is investing $100 million in total to retool for Cruise AV production. The other is the Brownstown battery assembly plant, where roof modules for the Cruise AV are built.

This month marks the official celebration of the world’s first moving assembly line. On Oct. 7, 1913, 140 assemblers stationed along a 150-foot chassis line at a Ford Motor Co. plant just north of Detroit stood in place as the work came to them.

KANSAS CITY, KS—GM will invest $600 million to upgrade its assembly plant here. Construction on a new 450,000-square-foot paint shop, a stamping press and efficiency enhancements at the plant will begin this year.

ATHENS, GA—Caterpillar’s new assembly plant here could create twice as many indirect jobs as the 1,400 workers who will be on the company’s payroll, Gov. Nathan Deal predicted Tuesday.