June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., which is adding factories in North America faster than any automaker, named a former General Motors Corp. production executive to run its main assembly plant in the region.

Steve St. Angelo, who spent 30 years at GM, replaced Gary Convis today as president of Toyota's plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, spokesman Dan Sieger said. Convis, 61, was promoted to plant chairman and will help oversee production operations of all Toyota's North American factories.

Toyota is building plants in Texas, Indiana and Ontario to lift North American production capacity to 2 million autos by 2008, almost double its 2000 output. Company officials say Georgetown plays a central role in refining and teaching Toyota's manufacturing system in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

``The real challenge for me is how do you take a good plant and make it really great,'' St. Angelo, 50, said in an interview today. ``In the past, I had jobs at GM getting facilities up to standard. Here I have a team that's already operating at the industry's highest level.''

St. Angelo joined Toyota City, Japan-based Toyota in April 2005 after retiring from GM, where he'd worked since 1974 in various manufacturing positions. In 2001 he was vice president of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a Fremont, California, assembly plant jointly owned and operated by GM and Toyota, the world's largest and second-largest automakers, respectively.

`A Lot of Relationships'

``When I was working at NUMMI I developed a lot of relationships with Toyota,'' St. Angelo said. ``We had a few beers after work and talked about me joining, but I didn't give it much thought at the time.''

Toyota's U.S. shares fell $2.24 to $98.25 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have declined 6.1 percent this year.

Toyota's sales in the U.S., its most profitable market, rose 8.8 percent this year through May. GM's dropped 8 percent in the same period. The Japanese carmaker is adding capacity while GM plans to close 12 North American production facilities by 2008 as it shrinks operations to return to profit.

The Georgetown plant, which opened in 1986, built 509,127 Camrys, Avalons and Solaras on two assembly lines in 2005. That output ranked second in North America, behind only GM's factory in Oshawa, Ontario, said Greg Gardner, a spokesman for Harbour Consulting in Troy, Michigan.

Georgetown also was rated second highest in total production quality, behind only the GM Oshawa plant, in J.D. Power's 2006 Initial Quality Survey released this month.

Convis became Georgetown's first non-Japanese president in 2001, and like St. Angelo began his career with GM. He worked for Ford Motor Co. from 1966 until 1984, when he became New United Motor's first general manager.

Convis also is senior vice president for Toyota's North American unit, executive vice president for North American engineering and manufacturing operations, and a managing officer with the parent company in Japan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 27, 2006 17:20 EDT