In the Chicagoland area, the home of ASSEMBLY Magazine for the past 60 years, freight trains are a daily fact of life. It's hard to drive anywhere without encountering at least one long train with numerous cars pulled by powerful locomotives.

CONTAGEM, Brazil--GE Transportation’s plant here unveiled this week a new approach to manufacturing locomotives with a mixed-model moving assembly line. Unlike traditional stationary production lines, the mixed-model moving line is designed to assemble different locomotive configurations as the units slowly move down the track. The assembly line cuts lead time by approximately 20 percent, reduces inventory by $1.75 million and creates 1,256 square meters of space savings within the factory.