As soon as the main frame of a vehicle arrives, a dozen robotic arms mob the automotive skeleton to attach and weld doors and a roof to it in a fraction of a minute.

It is dubbed the main-buck system, the key process of automatically building a body structure through combining a floor with doors and a roof with pinpoint precision at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG).

But KMMG, which is located in West Point, just southwest of Atlanta, is not a place featuring only robots.

Human workers are ubiquitous at significant points where they can do better than their robotic companions.

KMMG, which officially opened last Friday, says that the system of involving both robots and laborers offers unrivaled competitiveness to the U.S.-based factories.

``Experiences told us that 100-percent automation is not the most efficient fashion of producing automobiles. We found the human touch is essential to some extent, KMMG Senior Manager Richard Park said.

``We even count the robots not by units but by heads. We have 244 robots at this welding plant alone and hundreds of others on other lines. They work together with people to enable the highest productivity, he said.

Park said that another advantage of its facilities is the low distribution costs as their plants as well as those of its subcontractors are established in line with the highway while being interconnected through conveyor belts.

The conveyor belts are made of soft wood instead of hard steel in order to minimize damages to the backs of employees who work on them.

Plus, the heights of the belts can be rearranged in tune with those of staff who work next to them.

Most of its 1,200 employees are sent to Korea for job training sessions, which last up to half a year, after their recruitment to improve their skills and proficiency. KMMG is to continue the policy.

The 2.2 million-square-foot plant produces the 2011 Kia Sorento, currently one of the best-selling crossover utility vehicles here, at a faster pace than expected thanks in no small part to the mechanics designed for the best human-robot cooperation.

``As far as the production technology and operation management are concerned, I think that we are now ahead of Toyota, Park said.

Thus far, Toyota has been touted as an entity with the best competitive edge in operational efficiency.

``When we enhance our brand awareness down the road, our sales in the United States are likely to rise dramatically, said Park who has stayed here since 2006 when Kia Motors decided to set up a facility in Georgia.

The high efficiency of the Kia Motors model already seems to be on the lips of its competitors and the U.S. government because the requests for benchmarking continue to rise.

``We signed a staff-exchange program with a well-known European brand of late. We saw their mouths drop after watching our system. But our employees are seemingly not impressed by the European players facilities, Park said.

``Even a U.S. government agency recently visited our factories in tandem with the administrations instructions of raising the competitiveness of the U.S. industry. We are proud of that, he said.

KMMG looks to assemble 130,000 2011 Sorentos at the Georgia plant this year and will jack up the figure to its full capacity of 300,000 units by 2013.

Kia Motors is the main affiliate of the Seoul-based Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, which is the worlds sixth-largest automaker.