{"id":49530,"date":"2012-04-30T16:32:54","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T20:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=49530"},"modified":"2012-04-30T16:32:54","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T20:32:54","slug":"can-chrysler-match-japanese-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2012\/04\/can-chrysler-match-japanese-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Chrysler Match Japanese Quality?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
A pair of Dodge Dart bodies roll down the Belvidere assembly line.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s one of the industry\u2019s older plants and one that has not had an especially distinguished history.\u00a0 Not until now, anyway.\u00a0 But going forward, Chrysler officials are determined to transform their Belvidere, Illinois assembly plant into one of the best in the business.<\/p>\n

That can be measured in a variety of ways, of course, and Chrysler clearly hopes to turn the facility, two hours outside of Chicago, into one of the industry\u2019s most productive.\u00a0 But volume alone won\u2019t matter, cautions Senior Vice President Doug Betts, if the new Dodge Darts starting to roll off the Belvidere line can\u2019t match the quality of the best competitors like the Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla.<\/p>\n

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Be in the Know!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have to be substantially better\u201d than ever before, says Betts, who built his reputation during lengthy stints for both Toyota and Nissan before joining Chrysler in 2007.\u00a0 That\u2019s especially difficult he says, as he begins a tour of the Illinois plant, for a company that has long lingered \u201cat the bottom\u201d of the quality charts.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Chrysler quality czar Doug Betts in the Belvidere plant's new Metrology Lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While there are signs that has begun to change, the executive says it\u2019s one thing to go back and fix problems with an old car.\u00a0 It\u2019s another to try to get everything right with an all-new model like the 2013 Dodge Dart.\u00a0 It is a time when you face your \u201cbiggest risk,\u201d admits Betts, Chrysler’s quality guru, because \u201cvirtually everything changes\u201d in a plant.\u00a0 This time, however, Chrysler has decided to use that as an opportunity to get things right.<\/p>\n

There are more than 5 million square feet of factory space under the sprawling facility\u2019s roof.\u00a0 That includes an all-new body shop specifically designed for the Dart, which is based on a platform shared with Chrysler\u2019s Italian partner Fiat.<\/p>\n

(For a review of the 2013 Dodge Dart, <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are also a number of other new features added to the plant, including a so-called Launch Center in which every detail of Dart assembly \u2013 down to the tightening of the smallest bolt \u2013 has been simulated.\u00a0 Team leaders who\u2019ll oversee each basic operation have gone through extensive training using everything from bulletin boards designed to track and isolate problems to a state-of-the-art 3D simulator that \u201cAvatar\u201d director James Cameron might appreciate.<\/p>\n

Wearing a special set of glasses, line workers can use the system to step inside a virtual assembly line and digitally assemble a new Dart.\u00a0 The system can help isolate problems that might cause a quality snag or lead to such worker health-related problems as repetitive stress disorder.<\/p>\n

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Training on a virtual, 3D assembly line.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been taking the best people off the floor\u201d to run through the Launch Center, \u201cbecause who knows better what they are doing.\u00a0 And we let them design their own work stations,\u201d explains Bob Allen, who oversees the start of production of what is to become the most important Chrysler product for 2013 \u2013 and possibly beyond, as it could boost the maker\u2019s recent momentum\u00a0 or lead it to come crashing down.<\/p>\n

While union workers often take the blame for quality problems, Chrysler officials acknowledge the push to deliver a flawless Dodge Dart had to begin the moment design and engineering work began.\u00a0 And quality is a multi-faceted term that means more than just building a reliable vehicle.\u00a0 It\u2019s also about customer perceptions about seemingly small matters like the size of the gap between hood and fenders.<\/p>\n

Ensuring gaps are both small and consistent is one of the tasks for the Belvidere plant\u2019s new Metrology Lab.\u00a0 It operates with clean room precision, visitors slipping on booties and coveralls to minimize dust in the air.\u00a0 It is filled with a variety of machines, some relying on high-tech laser vision systems, others using more old-fashioned mechanical devices.\u00a0 But the goal is to quickly spot problems, such as a stamping machine that might be slightly out of sync.<\/p>\n

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The 2013 Dodge Dart is the first product off a new common platform shared by Chrysler and Fiat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Parts brought in by suppliers are subject to inspection, as well.\u00a0 Like its competitors, Chrysler now relies on outside parts makers for the vast majority of components it uses in a product like Dart, so as Betts and his colleagues work through the Metrology Lab a team of inspectors are comparing some pre-production headlamps with a metal prototype carefully carved into the perfect dimensions.<\/p>\n

The ultimate goal is to stop defects and other problems before they get onto the assembly line.\u00a0 But snags will always get through and workers are now encouraged to pull an \u201candon\u201d cord to halt production, if necessary, if something seems wrong. Additional, automated inspection systems \u2013 including one cluster known as \u201cthe vision farm\u201d — throughout the plant can effectively do the same thing.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a large number of the initial vehicles produced in Belvidere will be subject to post-production driving and other tests.\u00a0 That will continue at a slightly reduced rate once the factory gets fully up to speed.<\/p>\n

If all goes well, that means another vehicle \u2013 including the Jeep Compass and Patrio models produced alongside the Dart \u2013 will pass through each work station every 42 to 44 seconds.\u00a0 On a double shift that will work out to over 1,000 a day, computes Betts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how we could survive without getting all this stuff right,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But those who know Betts \u2013 who was named one of the 10 people to watch in the industry by Automotive News in 2008 \u2013 think he has a good shot at getting it right.\u00a0 “Doug Betts has a single focus on bringing Chrysler back into the field,\u201d says David Champion, director of automotive testing at Consumer Reports magazine.<\/p>\n

The test is about to begin.\u00a0 The first Dodge Darts will soon be in customer hands and later this year key quality arbiters, such as Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and Associates, will be studying the results.\u00a0 A strong endorsement could position Chrysler as a serious contender in a market segment where it has long been an also-ran.\u00a0 A thumbs down on quality could severely impact the company\u2019s long-term viability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can Chrysler match the quality of Japan’s best. Such a question might have provoked little more than a laugh a couple years ago. But Chrysler’s Japanese-trained quality guru, Doug Betts is only willing to take “Yes” for an answer. And TheDetroitBureau.com visits the Dodge Dart plant in Illinois to see how he plans to pull this transformation together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49530"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=49530"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=49530"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=49530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}