DaimlerChrysler Corporation's Sterling Heights Assembly Plant Celebrates Entrance of New Sedans
18 July 2000
DaimlerChrysler Corporation's Sterling Heights Assembly Plant Celebrates Entrance of New Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus Sedans
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The first, new, customer-ready 2001 Chrysler Sebring
and Dodge Stratus Sedans rolled off the final assembly line to hundreds of
employees and officials today at DaimlerChrysler Corporation's Sterling Heights
Assembly Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
The Job Number One ceremony included a "Best In Class" award presented by
the president of J.D. Power and Associates, and a test drive of the new 2001
Chrysler Sebring Convertible by executives and Michigan Lt. Governor Dick
Posthumus in the plant's water test area - all to the music of the SHAP band.
As part of the celebration, the company also donated approximately three acres
of land to the city of Sterling Heights to use for a new fire station.
"We faced the challenge of building two all-new sedans and adding a new
convertible to production, and doing it on-time, under budget and with top
quality, and we've done it," said Ron Czar, SHAP plant manager. "The men and
women of this team, both here at Sterling Heights and from the vehicle
platform team, really stepped up to the plate to make this day a reality."
Steve Goodall, the president of J.D. Power and Associates presented
DaimlerChrysler Corporation with the Best In Class Initial Quality Study (IQS)
2000 award in the Entry Midsize category for the Plymouth Breeze, which was
produced there. The 2000 Plymouth Breeze and Dodge Stratus -- predecessors to
the 2001 Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus Sedans -- earned two of the top
three scores this year in that segment. DaimlerChrysler Corp. was the only
domestic automaker to earn a J.D. Power IQS Best In Class award this year.
"This award not only recognizes the quality of the product, but the people
who design and build it," said Goodall. "This recognition of quality bodes
well for this team as they look forward to building the next generation of the
vehicle platform."
Gary Henson, DaimlerChrysler Executive Vice President - Manufacturing;
Nate Gooden, Vice President and Director, UAW DaimlerChrysler, and Dick
Posthumus, Lt. Governor of the State of Michigan, rode with Goodall in the
convertible as it made its debut through a water test area in the plant.
After opening the roof, the officials gave it the quality thumbs up, and asked
the employees to take a bow. Dick Entenmann, DaimlerChrysler Vice President
and General Manager for Large Car, Small Car and Minivan Operations also
presented Sterling Heights Mayor Richard Notte with a deed for three acres of
land on the southwest corner of 17-mile and Van Dyke, which will be used for a
new firestation.
FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING AT SHAP
The flexibility of SHAP enabled DaimlerChrysler Corporation to launch the
new 2001 Dodge Stratus and Chrysler Sebring Sedans and add the new 2001
Chrysler Sebring Convertible there this summer without interrupting current
production, and using the same space.
The company has been preparing SHAP for the arrival of the Sebring
Convertible from the Toluca Assembly Plant, in Toluca, Mexico. Rather than
assemble the convertible in a separate location, the company realized
synergies with Mercedes-Benz plants in Germany, and optimized each station and
process in order to accommodate the complexity of both the sedan and the
convertible. This had to be done using the same amount of space. The company
was able to avoid over $100 million of production launch costs by adding the
Chrysler Sebring Convertible, without having to install a separate production
line.
Prior to the production launch, the overhead vehicle carrier in the
assembly area could not accommodate the convertible, as there was not enough
room for roof installation. Part of the ongoing benchmarking with the
Mercedes-Benz plants yielded a best practice that works particularly well with
convertibles -- the use of a skillet conveyor in final assembly.
A skillet conveyor is a closed-loop, friction-drive conveyance system with
a floor-level palette carrying each vehicle. The height of each palette is
adjustable, and can be programmed to a particular height, through the process.
Not only does this free the space to assemble the convertible, more
importantly, this kind of conveyor is more ergonomically sound for operators.
Each palette can be customized for each product, station, and operation. SHAP
installed the skillet conveyor for this launch, and to increase its
flexibility for future launches. It is the first Chrysler Group plant to use
a skillet conveyor.
The flexibility of the manufacturing operations, and the teamwork between
the large car platform and manufacturing disciplines throughout the product
development, are responsible for reducing the total development time to 26
months, eight months faster than the previous model. Total program cost to
develop and build two sedans and a convertible at SHAP is approximately $985
million, compared to the $940 million it cost to build two previous sedans,
which does not include the convertible.
At full capacity, SHAP will be able to produce about 230,000 annually.
The plant has the ability to adjust model mix produced based on demand.
Approximately 3050 team members work in the plant on two eight-hour shifts.
FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING THROUGHOUT THE CORPORATION
DaimlerChrysler Corporation's ability to increase the flexibility of its
manufacturing facilities will enable the company to minimize production losses
and reduce downtime through "rolling launches." It is estimated that the
value of avoiding this potential loss of downtime and production will
favorably impact the company by more than $3 billion through the 2004 product
launches. In a rolling launch, pre-production vehicles are built, tested and
launched on the same assembly line where current vehicles are manufactured,
steadily ramping up so that down-time and volume loss are minimized during the
new product changeover. Typically a manufacturer "loses" several weeks of
production because it has to stop production to install new tooling and
equipment, and begin slowly ramping up production to test its equipment and
processes.
"By applying flexible systems and concepts to upcoming launches, we
estimate over $3 billion of improvement over the next four years," said Gary
Henson. "With the increasing flexibility of our facilities, we're able to
build pre-production vehicles in the plants, on our assembly lines much
earlier. The benefits are tremendous: Flexibility enables us to produce a
higher quality product, much sooner, for lower cost, less downtime and with
minimal production loss. This represents huge productivity and efficiency
improvements."
Not only does a more flexible facility allow a manufacturer to improve its
launches, it also enables the company to adjust production volumes of
different products in order to react quickly to customer demand.