The 2001 Chrysler Town and Country and 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan Minivans Roll Off the Assembly Line
24 July 2000
Roll Off the Assembly Line at DaimlerChrysler Corporation's Windsor Assembly Plant, Setting a New Production Launch Standard
* Company starts 'launch clock' to track the number of days it takes to
ramp up daily production to 1470 vehicles
* Manufacturing flexibility at Windsor will enable the company to avoid
more than $500 million in production launch costs, $3 billion company-
wide in future launches
* Virtual manufacturing enables company to improve quality, simulate
production and improve speed to market
WINDSOR, Ontario - The first all-new, customer-level 2001 Chrysler Town and
Country and 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan minivans rolled off the final assembly line
today at DaimlerChrysler Corporation's Windsor Assembly Plant -- home of the
minivan -- marking the beginning of the company's most ambitious production
ramp up.
Employees and officials at the plant held a brief roll-off ceremony, which
included a live, interactive "launch readiness check" from 15 DaimlerChrysler
component plants that provide parts for the new minivans. As the two vehicles
came off the production line, the company started a "minivan launch clock"
which will track the number of days it takes the plant to reach its maximum
daily production rate of 1,470 vehicles. The company plans to host another
event in August to commemorate the day it reaches the goal, which is on track
to be an industry benchmark.
"This is the most ambitious production launch we've ever attempted," said
Gary Henson, DaimlerChrysler Executive Vice President - Manufacturing. "We
are setting a new benchmark in terms of rolling launches. Because of the
amount of flexibility in our plant, we are hitting the ground running in
Windsor. We have dramatically reduced downtime and lost production through
our ability to pilot-build vehicles at a much earlier time in the process.
The lead-time helps us improve quality and speed throughout the supply chain."
Gordon Rinschler, DaimlerChrysler Vice President of Minivan Platform
Engineering; Mike Tonietto, Windsor Plant Manager; and Bob Miller, Windsor
Plant CAW Chairman were joined by employees in the brief roll-off ceremony.
"We are ready for launch," declared Rinschler. "The men and women of the
minivan extended family, including the platform team, employees at Windsor,
St. Louis and Graz, our component plants and our suppliers, have gone above
and beyond the call of duty to prepare for this launch.
"Our engineers left no cup holder unturned in the focus to increase the
overall quality, safety and performance of our all-new Chrysler and Dodge
minivans. They offer our customers unmatched refinement in terms of ride and
handling, performance and overall driving experience," added Rinschler.
"Today is a milestone for us here at Windsor," said Tonietto. "Not only
are we building job number one and two, but by the end of the day, we will
have built job number 300. Today is when our work at the plant really steps
up as we begin ramping up production. Come back in August and we'll celebrate
when we reached the top of the mountain. Right now it's time for us to get
back to work."
FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING BRINGS $500 MILLION IN SAVINGS AT WINDSOR, AND
$3 BILLION OVER THE NEXT FOUR YEARS THROUGHOUT THE COMPANY
A new level of flexible manufacturing at the Windsor Assembly Plant will
enable the company to avoid more than $500 million of production launch costs
for the new minivans at current planned volumes. Because of its ability to
accomplish a rolling production launch, downtime will be reduced by more than
80 percent, cutting lost production dramatically.
DaimlerChrysler Corporation's ability to increase the flexibility of its
manufacturing facilities worldwide 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
Henson. "Because of 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.
WINDSOR ASSEMBLY PLANT'S FLEXIBLE BODY SHOP
In order for Windsor's body shop to accommodate two different vehicles
(both existing and new minivans), the company installed tooling which
accommodates the assembly processes needed to complete two different bodies.
Once full production starts on the new models, the existing tooling will be
replaced with "white space" -- an open area of unused space in the facility --
which can then be used to install tooling to pilot the next vehicle.
In order to accomplish this, the company first divided the tooling for
welding processes into two distinct areas: similar processes flexible enough
to accommodate a variety of different vehicles, which were in the aperture,
underbody and framing areas; and dissimilar processes that are specific to an
individual vehicle. Essentially, every vehicle, regardless of make or model,
can pass through a flexible process in the body shop; likewise, each vehicle
must pass through certain specific processes for it exclusively. It is this
flexible process that enables the company to pilot pre-production vehicles
while building the current versions.
The framing, aperture and underbody processes use palettes that can
accommodate a variety of different underbodies, which are now separate,
permanent areas that each product can pass through. Each product, including
the new 2001 minivans, has aperture and underbody subassembly processes which
are dedicated to them exclusively.
The company completed 90 percent of the tooling required for the new
models by December shutdown last year to ramp up for a July launch. Tooling
to support unique processes for upcoming models is already underway in the
plant's body shop. Now that the build-out is complete for the model year 2000
minivans, new tooling is being installed in order to begin piloting the next
vehicle.
At full production this fall, the Windsor Assembly Plant will be able to
produce 370,000 vehicles annually. Approximately 6,100 team members operate
on three, seven-and-a-half hour shifts.
DaimlerChrysler Corporation's St. Louis South (MO) and Eurostar (Graz,
Austria) facilities will launch the minivan family in the fall and winter
respectively. By having representatives on the core launch team, these
manufacturing operations will be able to apply lessons learned from the
Windsor Assembly Plant launch to their respective production launches.
COMPONENT PLANTS THAT SUPPORT THE MINIVAN
Plant Location What Supplied
Ajax Trim Plant Ajax, Ontario, Canada Trim Covers
Dayton Thermal Dayton, Ohio HVAC components
Products Plant
Detroit Axle Plant Detroit, Michigan Axle, Sway Bars,
Differentials
Etobicoke Casting Etobicoke, Ontario, Pistons for 3.3- and 3.8-
Plant Canada liter minivan engines
Huntsville Huntsville, Alabama Radios; engine,
Electronics transmission and body
controllers; and many of
the instrument clusters
Indianapolis Foundry Indianapolis, Indiana Engine Blocks
Kokomo Casting Plant Kokomo, Indiana Transmission and transaxle
cases
Kokomo Transmission Kokomo, Indiana Transmissions
Plant
McGraw Glass Detroit, Michigan Windshield, backlight and
front door glass; also,
bodyside forward and rear
quarter glass through
Donnelly Corporation
New Castle Machining New Castle, Indiana Front knuckle assembly
and Forge and lower control arm
assembly
Sterling Stamping Sterling Heights, Stampings and assemblies
Plant Michigan
Toledo Machining Toledo, Ohio Torque converters and
Plant steering columns
Trenton Engine Plant Trenton, Michigan 3.3-liter (V-6) and 3.8-
liter (V-6) engines
Twinsburg Stamping Twinsburg, Ohio Stampings and assemblies
Plant
Warren Stamping Warren, Michigan Stampings and assemblies
Plant
VIRTUAL MANUFACTURING
DaimlerChrysler Corporation is using manufacturing simulation software to
create a seamless union between product development and manufacturing by using
compatible systems to design the vehicles and to simulate build processes in
the plant. The vision is to allow the integrated system to cover all aspects
of manufacturing, from part design to plant design, helping to get new
products to market faster.
With this system, DaimlerChrysler Corporation was able to simulate the
manufacturing environment at Windsor long before the pilot vehicles were
assembled at the facilities. As the products evolved through their
development, the manufacturing processes evolved with them, enabling
simultaneous engineering to take place.
The system uses a single language database across the entire product
development and manufacturing process -- from product development to plant
design. This increases communication, efficiency and supply-chain
integration. The goal is to use the system to simulate and visualize the
entire manufacturing process and plant before any hardware is produced.
"By simulating manufacturing we can make tooling and equipment updates in
a virtual environment rather than with the actual tooling, which is a
phenomenal savings of cost and manpower throughout the supply chain," said
Frank Ewasyshyn, DaimlerChrysler Senior Vice President of Advance
Manufacturing Engineering and General Manager of Minivan Operations.
"Simulation allows the tooling process within the manufacturing facility
to be much more precise, resulting in assembly operations being brought up to
speed faster with less issues."