|
|
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
|
Chrysler plant celebrates Caliber’s breakout moment
|
|---|
| Parent(s) |
Container
|
| Contributor | Guy |
| Last Edited | Guy Feb 02, 2006 12:35pm |
| Logged |
0
|
| Category | Event |
| Media | Newspaper - Rockford Register Star |
| News Date | Thursday, February 2, 2006 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | BELVIDERE — With the feel of a political pep rally, complete with a shower of confetti, DaimlerChrysler “officially” launched the Dodge Caliber Wednesday as a red Caliber with Chrysler Group CEO Tom LaSorda at the wheel and Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the passenger seat burst through a giant projection screen emblazoned with the words “A Bold New World.”
With the Caliber, the Jeep Compass and maybe a third vehicle rolling off the line this year, with nearly 800 cutting-edge robots installed, and with a manufacturing philosophy last seen inside the factories of Toyota and Honda, the sentiment is fitting.
The plant is now the most flexible of Chrysler’s 14 North American factories. It can claim that distinction because of those 780 robots installed in the body shop and the willingness of local union workers to change from the assembly-line concept pioneered a century ago by Henry Ford to the team concept made popular by Japanese automakers. The retooling came only after union officials, after months of talks, agreed to change wording in the contract to allow the company to implement the team model.
Chrysler pushed the changes despite the fact that the Belvidere operation was already a jewel in the company’s crown. The plant is routinely the most efficient of all Chrysler assembly plants in the annual Harbour rankings, the industry benchmarks that measure the time it takes workers to complete a vehicle, and it was named Plant of the Year for 2005 by Plant Engineering Magazine, an Oak Brook-based trade publication. |
| Share |
|
|
2¢
|
|
| Article | Read Full Article |
|
| Date |
Category |
Headline |
Article |
Contributor |
|
|
