Robot issues slowing production at Belvidere Chrysler plant

Alex Gary, ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR, BELVIDERE — Last winter, contractors installed more than 700 robots in the DaimlerChrysler assembly plant’s body shop as part of a $419 million investment to make the plant the most flexible and automated of the company’s 14 North American factories.

The Swedish-made robots were intended to make the place more efficient. Instead, it turns out they are the main reason the Belvidere operation has fallen behind on production of the Dodge Caliber and Jeep Compass, according to the person in charge of manufacturing for the Chrysler Group.

The fact the plant isn’t meeting production targets came to light July 3 when DaimlerChrysler officials announced sales of the Caliber dropped 2.6 percent from May to June. The sales dip was not because the car isn’t popular; it may be the most sought after domestic new car in the past three years. It was because workers at the plant aren’t turning out enough of them.

Frank Ewasyshyn, executive vice president of manufacturing, said in a telephone interview from Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., that software issues are causing frequent shutdowns in the body shop, some for just a few minutes but many for 45 minutes or more.

“This is the most ambitious product launch we’ve ever had,” Ewasyshyn said. “We’re doing way more than we’ve ever done, and it isn’t like ‘Geez, we didn’t think things would go wrong.’”
While Ewasyshyn said the company expected some rough going, an executive at Troy, Mich.-based Harbor Consulting, said her sources in the industry are saying the problems are worse than the company anticipated.

“They are having to burn considerable overtime to try to meet the production targets,” said Michelle Hill, director of benchmarking in North America for Harbor. The company produces the annual and influential Harbor Report, which tracks which plants are most efficient at producing vehicles. The Belvidere operation has long been a star for Chrysler in the Harbor publication, annually ranking as the company’s most efficient.

Hill said that’s unlikely to be the case when the next report comes out in 2007.