STERLING HEIGHTS PLANT TO GET TWO SHIFTS TO START

Chris Vander Doelen, Windsor Star - - Now this is where Chrysler's flexible manufacturing plans, many years in the making by LaSorda and Frank Ewasyshyn as engineers and junior executives, should start paying off for the company.

The Sebring and its variants will be manufactured in Sterling Heights (not Jefferson, as reported last week. That's where the new Grand Cherokee diesel will be assembled). It will probably only require two shifts to meet demand for the Sebring, LaSorda said. "I don't see (three shifts) at this point. But I said that about Caliber."

Belvidere assembly, outside Chicago, which builds the Caliber and its siblings, the Compass and Patriot, recently added a third shift of short-term contract employees to meet rising demand for the Caliber, which is selling so quickly there is only an 11-day supply of them in the dealer system.

"We can't make them fast enough," said a beaming LaSorda. But if one or more of those four vehicles explodes into a monster hit like the PT Cruiser did, Chrysler won't be caught short of product this time because it will be able to add capacity at either Belvidere or Sterling Heights.

Both of those plants have identical capabilities as flex plants, and extra Compass or Caliber capacity could be brought on stream quickly in Detroit if orders start to outpace what Belvidere can produce, LaSorda said.

There was much gnashing of teeth inside Chrysler after the PT Cruiser came out because limited production capacity left tens of thousands of potential sales unfulfilled. The company considered adding a second PT Cruiser plant, but the bean counters balked at the prospect of investing another billion bucks and taking on another workforce for life to build a car that might be flash in the pan fad. So they backed off.

LaSorda isn't anticipating such a turn of events with the Sebring, but they're prepared: "The plant is in great shape to make a lot of these," he said of the Sebring.