Several GM factories built in the 1980s illustrate the scale of the company's effort at automation. For instance, $500 million was spent on the Hamtramck plant in Detroit. It was built by bulldozing an entire inner city neighborhood (77 acres) called Poletown. This factory, which opened in 1985, was equipped with the best available technology, including 260 robots and 50 AGVs ("Back to earth," 1987; "When GM's robots," 1991). Another example is the $400 million improvement of Buick City in Flint, Michigan. Buick City has flexible tooling to reduce inventory, as well as 87 delivery doors to allow "just in time" delivery of parts. Component manufacturers are also located nearby in order to reduce the cost of transportation and time used. GM executives claimed that Buick City carries only one-third the normal parts inventory and is 30% more efficient than a conventional plant (Hampton & Norman, 1987). A final example is a small demonstration plant located in Saginaw Vanguard, Michigan. This plant is designed as a testing ground for the newest technology. Equipped with $52 million of the newest equipment, it has only 42 workers over two shifts (Hampton, 1988).